Sun, Moon, Stars
by The Real Iggy
Summary: Rewrite AU - Sakura and Hinata have, for the most part, not had bad lives. They have their troubles, some have even been significant, but there are family and friends to protect them. They are different from Naruto and Sasuke, who are alone. What does pain mean to a ninja? "We are shinobi. We go on."
1. Ninja

The sun inched over the treetops on a still morning in the Land of Waves. Slowly, it crept through the panel-less window onto the futon of a young girl. Pink hair spread haphazardly about the cover, which rose and fell gently. Softly, the girl's face tilted sleepily towards the sun until her eyes twitched beneath its gaze.

Several minutes later, Sakura Haruno drearily eased the door shut from the room she shared with Tsunami-san, who would not be up quite yet. As she walked in the rough-hewn wooden kitchen she caught sight of her two teammates. Naruto, as expected, could not last the wait and was snoring on the table, a trickle of drool edging out of his mouth. Sasuke, as always, looked none the worse for wear in the early hours, but after a second, careful look she saw how his eyelids dipped ever so slightly more than usual. Clearly he was not so above sleeping in as he appeared, but his pride would never let him show it.

Sakura giggled at the thought, also causing Naruto to snort and raise his head.

"Guh mornin' Sakura-chan..." Sakura ignored him as she saw Sasuke direct his gaze to her. She immediately cleared her throat of her morning phlegm.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun… Naruto." Sasuke just nodded in acknowledgment, too tired to even give a 'hn'. Naruto slowly unstuck himself from the table and walked over to a cabinet where a stock of wrapped rice balls had been prepared ahead of time while they were training. He grabbed a bundle and passed them out to his teammates. Sasuke took his without a glance and Sakura accepted hers quietly then joined the boys at the table. They ate in silence save for the birds noisily chirping outside. Sasuke finished his first and leaned back, stretching like a cat.

Eventually several minutes had passed. Naruto, who'd begun nodding off again, shook his head roughly and stood up.

"This _sucks_! Where is Kakashi-sensei? I gotta get back to training! I don't have _time_ to save him from some black cat that crossed his path." Sakura, who'd normally berate his outburst, looked down at her hands, unwilling to voice her agreement. Sasuke stood up as well, but for a different reason.

"Now Naruto, one day when you come across a black cat on your way to your inauguration as Hokage and you trip and fall and land in the hospital and they pick _Sasuke_ to be Hokage because you never showed… I'd hate to say I told you so," Kakashi said happily from behind Naruto, who jumped and fumbled for his kunai pouch at the first word. His instincts might have been impressive had he not cut his thumb and dropped the kunai to the floor, cursing. Sasuke rolled his eyes, while Sakura handed Naruto his fallen kunai but only after lightly rapping his knuckles with it in admonishment first.

Soon they'd returned to the forest clearing where yesterday's training to protect Tazuna-san had begun. Sakura knew Naruto and even Sasuke still had plenty of work to do climbing trees. However, there was still a lot of time before Kakashi-sensei would be able to fight again, and Sakura had already reached the top of the tree at the end of the previous day. Sakura wondered what training she would be doing now. Honestly coming out so far ahead of not only Naruto but also Sasuke in something had made her want to simply set out to town with Tazuna-san instead of more training.

Finally, Kakashi cleared his throat. "Today we're going to briefly switch tracks."

Naruto hollered in excitement, drowsiness forgotten. Sasuke stood at attention. Sakura watched Kakashi with wide-eyed interest.

"As you know, ninjutsu is one of the three fundamental aspects of the Shinobi Way. As you may or may not know, it is perhaps the most diverse of the three branches." Kakashi carefully set aside his crutches and leaned against a tree. "Every ninja finds their own specialty of jutsu, and every team of ninja develops their own function using their jutsu. Right now, the jutsu we require is solely combat-based." Kakashi observed Naruto twisting his pinkie in his ear, bemused. Well, he knew a way to get his attention. "Sakura," he turned, startling her somewhat. Naruto quickly removed his finger in deference. "What can you tell me about Elemental Jutsu?"

"A-ah, well…" she drew herself up, "in addition to specific Ninja Arts, ninjutsu can be used with an elemental affinity. There are five affinities, and each is strong against one type and weak against another. Different people are good with different affinities, and the Five Great Nations are all named after the types of elemental jutsu their ninja are most likely to use," she dutifully recited. Kakashi nodded.

"Good, now, one among you is already capable of elemental jutsu… Sasuke." Sasuke grunted. "How many Fire Style jutsu can you do?"

"Three," he muttered, "but one of them still… gives me some trouble."

"Interesting. Why can you use fire jutsu?" Sasuke fidgeted a bit.

"Every Uchiha can do them. It's a rite of passage."

"Yes, of course, perhaps I should have asked it differently..." Kakashi thumbed his masked chin, "why is it _fire_ justu that the Uchiha became known for?" Sasuke said nothing. Sakura tried to think, but Kakashi continued anyway. "I'll tell you, because their chakra has fire affinity, and this affinity tends to run in families. So, Sasuke, when could you first use fire-type chakra?"

"...I was eight," he answered slowly.

"Impressive," Sasuke grimaced slightly, "one last thing: what do you have to do with your chakra in a fire jutsu that's different from normal justu?"

"Breathe. Using fire jutsu is about collecting chakra in your upper body and unleashing it with proper breath control… but no one ever told me that," he added.

"Indeed. You see kids, every person's chakra leans toward an element. For Sasuke here, it's obviously fire-type. But there are five affinities, and ninja are capable of learning more than one affinity. Your chakra nature is really more of a spectrum of how strong each of your affinities are, and as you learn to use your chakra you'll automatically gear towards the strongest one, but training can allow you to change your chakra nature to perform different techniques. Most jounin—such as myself—are able to use two types of elemental ninjutsu. You, Sasuke, can naturally use fire-type chakra, but you can learn to use more."

"So hey, Kakashi-sensei, what's your elemental-thingie?" Naruto all but shouted in excitement.

"Me? Why I can copy any type of jutsu thanks to my Sharingan," he said humbly, "...but you might say I'm best at the Lightning Style."

"I wanna learn 'em all!" Naruto declared. Sasuke snorted.

"Naruto!" Sakura barked, "don't get so cocky! In Konohagakure only Sandaime-sama is able to use all five types of jutsu! At least, that's what I read..." she said, unsure.

"Well you're not wrong Sakura. I don't really count since my Sharingan allows my body to memorize the change in chakra nature that my opponents do. For most ninja, it's not practical to focus on so much variety. You'll most likely wind up with a bunch of weak jutsu that you can't even use correctly," Kakashi responded. "Sandaime-sama has been a shinobi for a very long time. He's even called 'the Professor' for his prodigious mastery of different jutsu. Now..." Kakashi reached into his vest where several pieces of paper emerged. "This is a type of litmus paper made from trees grown with chakra. It was rather good I thought to bring them just in case hm?" he crinkled his single eye. "This paper is highly sensitive to chakra, and it will react in accordance with your chakra's strongest nature. Like this." He held the slip between his fingers where it crinkled together. "As lightning chakra is easiest for me to use, the paper will shrivel when I run my chakra through it. Therefore, the first thing we need to do is use this to test your chakra nature." He handed a piece of the paper to Naruto and Sakura, then stopped by Sasuke. "Now for you… you already knowing fire chakra makes this more difficult. If you focus your chakra on the paper normally, it will catch fire. In order to find a new nature you will need to control your chakra without tapping any fire nature at all. Think about your fire type jutsu, and focus on keeping all that fire affinity out of it." Sasuke nodded and took the paper.

Sakura quickly went through the steps to focus her chakra. She formed a seal with the paper between her fingers and closed her eyes. Naruto glanced back and forth between her and his paper rapidly. Sakura felt the stirrings of chakra come from her center, and directed it towards the paper.

"Woah!" she heard from her left. Sakura opened her eyes and saw that the paper had turned into a soggy mess in her hands. "Sakura-chan got it to work already… you're so awesome!" she stared at her hands in wonder, ignoring Naruto's exclamation.

"Water style huh? That's pretty common," Kakashi nodded, and then looked at Naruto.

"Alright! Now it's my turn…!" Naruto held out his hand with the paper in it and shut his eyes. He hummed softly to himself as if he were attempting to enter some kind of zen-like state, but his face started to turn red in strain.

"Naruto, remember what I told you yesterday?" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Your chakra won't work when you're all pent up like that! Loosen your body and try to feel out your chakra naturally."

"Oh yeah! You're right Sakura-chan~" She sighed while Sasuke watched him quietly. They waited several seconds. Naruto didn't move an inch. A small breeze ruffled Sakura's hair just as a whistle rang out.

"I think I got it!" Naruto shouted as two pieces of paper fluttered out of his hand, split in two. Sasuke narrowed his eyes while Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Ho, wind style is pretty rare," he said.

"Not bad, Naruto!" Sakura grinned. Sasuke turned to his paper, held in one hand. In less than a second, he set it aflame.

"Show-off," Naruto muttered. Kakashi immediately handed him another paper.

"Dummy, he probably only did that so he knew what it felt like," Sakura hissed softly while Sasuke concentrated on his new paper.

Naruto rocked on his heels as Sasuke concentrated for an entire minute. Sakura watched anxiously until finally, Sasuke opened his eyes to a wrinkled paper.

"Well then… lightning…" Kakashi said quietly. _"That will come in handy later,"_ Kakashi thought to himself.

" _Sasuke-kun's so cool!"_ Sakura thought gleefully. An idea occurred to her. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, may I have another paper? I think I could change my chakra..."

"Hm… if you can, it would definitely be something," Kakashi replied, handing her another piece.

She took the paper and focused again. This time she felt her chakra come easily, but held it down to try and keep out the water chakra. The tendrils of chakra came without effort, but keeping it contained was hard. She was reminded of whack-a-mole at the summer festival. She could bring out some chakra so easily, but reigning it in was a lot harder, like keeping a tension in her body but not letting it free, yet she was not actively straining her muscles like Naruto had. It was an odd sensation. Eventually, she felt something different, and pushed it forward.

"Well! That _is_ something," Kakashi said happily as a handful of dust fell from Sakura's fingers. "For you to successfully alter your chakra nature after so little time… well, the chakra control you demonstrated yesterday certainly helps with that." Kakashi held his chin. _"It's more than that though. Most likely her chakra alignment spectrum has water and earth very close to the other in strength. Looks like water nature is the slightly stronger of the two. This also means that between the three of them they possess all five nature transformations."_ He eyed Sakura who wobbled a little on her feet.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto motioned as if to steady her, but held back in fear of repercussion.

"Y-yeah, just felt a bit dizzy," she replied. Sasuke sighed as he watched them, knowing what had happened.

" _Well, her talent for chakra control might also be a result of her low stamina. The more chakra you have, the harder it is to control, after all,"_ Kakashi observed. After Sakura steadied herself Kakashi gingerly stepped off of his tree and clapped his hands. "Alright kids, here's the deal. The reason I did this is because the fact of the matter is we're in a very _dangerous_ situation. In order to have the best chance of success, everyone here needs to do whatever they can to increase their strength. I hadn't expected to go beyond tree-climbing, but yesterday proved that Sakura needs something else to keep her occupied until the next confrontation with Zabuza."

"Well… shouldn't we protect Tazuna-san until then?" Sakura raised her hand.

"Well, the short answer is that Zabuza is likely the strongest ninja the enemy has at their disposal, and he failed once already. After that, it's unlikely they would attack with anyone else; doing so would only mean a greater defeat. However, Zabuza will be out of commission for at least as long as me."

"In other words, guarding Tazuna would serve no point until Zabuza recovers," Sasuke said slowly, "instead we should raise our battle strength while we can."

"Very good, Sasuke," Kakashi raised a finger, "however, a ninja must consider many possibilities if they are to succeed. Tazuna not being attacked by any of Gato's other men is merely _unlikely._ Furthermore, it's also possible that Zabuza has a medical ninja at his side, which would dramatically speed up his recovery. As he is a rogue ninja and medical ninja are in short supply, this is also unlikely… but not impossible, understand?"

"Hmm..." Naruto furrowed his brow, "I don't get it Kakashi-sensei, are we gonna be guarding Tazuna-ojichan or not?"

"We'll have to compromise," he replied.

"You mean we need to do both?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, and there is one technique that will help us do just that: Kage Bunshin no Jutstu. Naruto?" The blonde grinned.

"I see Kakashi-sensei, you need _my_ awesome jutsu to complete this mission, right?" he crossed his fingers and a dozen Narutos appeared with a poof.

"Settle down, Naruto, one clone is good enough. You need to keep that chakra for your training," Kakashi held out a hand. "This will only be for the next few days until I'm well enough to do the same thing."

"Eh~ Kakashi-sensei can do Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Naruto bemoaned.

"Of course, loser, it's practically one of Konoha's signature jutsu," Sasuke muttered.

"That's right, Naruto, me knowing it should _hardly_ be surprising," Kakashi bowed while Sakura suppressed a snort, "it is common among jounin and stronger chunin in Konoha. The technique's unique aspects mean it can be quite dangerous when not used properly, so it is restricted until then."

"Restricted? It seemed to me that scroll was a bigger deal than that!" Naruto said huffily.

"The version of the technique contained in that scroll is even more dangerous, Naruto," Kakashi said idly, "you're probably the only ninja in Konoha that can use it the way you do. Anyone else could die trying." Naruto opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish for a few moments. Sakura could tell Sasuke was irritated with this information, and braced herself for a loud hoot from her orange teammate. Unexpectedly, Naruto crossed his arms and looked down.

"But… why?"

"We'll talk about it later, Naruto." Kakashi ushered the clone in the direction of the town, "for now have your clone go out with Tazuna, and don't worry, if anything happens, you'll know." The clone shrugged at its dumbfounded original and leaped into the trees on all fours like some sort of animal.

Kakashi gestured to the boys."Now you two, get back to your trees. Your goal is to reach the top, however long it takes."

"Eh~? I wanna learn some cool wind jutsu, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto complained.

"Naruto!" Sakura said tersely to the blonde, who cowered. "You won't be able to do difficult jutsu until you can control your chakra better! That's why Kakashi-sensei wants you to complete the tree-climbing training first!" Sasuke shuffled his hands in his pockets and walked to his tree without a word. Naruto scrambled, aghast.

"Hey! Don't think you can get a head-start on me, Sasuke!"

"Loser," Sakura heard. She tuned out Naruto's yelps of pain as he began falling from the tree.

"Well Sakura, you're the _only_ one who gets to start learning new jutsu today," Kakashi visibly grinned beneath his mask.

"Uh, well, I don't really know what kind of techniques I want to learn, sensei," Sakura said, red with embarrassment, looking hurriedly at Sasuke's tree to see if he'd heard.

"Don't worry about it, before that you'll need two things: mastery of water-type chakra and enough stamina to use it… so, that's how we'll start."

Sakura gulped as Kakashi rubbed his hands together.

* * *

An hour later Sakura hunched over a small puddle, panting. A mound of dirt with an indent in the side and top lay next to it. Kakashi reclined a short distance away while he thumbed through his book.

"Try to imagine the shape of the water. Using water-type chakra is about controlling change. Water is free-form and versatile. It takes the shape of its container. Try to coat it with your chakra and then manipulate it to use as that container," he called without getting up. Sakura groaned with fatigue. Her arms felt twice as heavy after trying to force her chakra into the puddle, which hadn't so much as rippled.

"I think I need to rest, sensei," she sighed.

"As you wish," he amended, "know that elemental mastery is a vast undertaking, and even getting it to the point of using a basic jutsu can take weeks. This will get easier the more you use your chakra, and will also improve its capacity… for now, at least." Sakura shivered as she considered what he meant by that. She'd been exhausted yesterday, too. She sat back and felt her stomach rumble. With as much haste as she could muster she pulled several rice balls from her pack and began indelicately chomping down on them.

It was with growing frustration that Sakura saw the shadows lengthen and the light filtering through the trees turn orange as the afternoon passed them by. The puddle lay as innocently untouched as when she began, while her entire body stung with chakra exhaustion. Calling on her remaining chakra had become painful, yet some part of her felt acutely familiar with it now. Surely, the academy's basic jutsu has never felt like this before. She ventured she could do a basic clone or substitution much faster than she used to with how easily she could focus her chakra.

Even if water style jutsu were not yet among her techniques.

"Hey… Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura moaned as she let herself fall to the ground with her limbs splayed out. "When can I stop doing this?"

"Before you're ready to learn a jutsu, you should be able to move the water from the puddle to the top of that little mound I made," Kakashi said, carefully returning his book to his pouch. "At this rate that looks to be a few more days at best."

" _Has he even been keeping track of me?"_ Sakura's inner voice growled rebelliously. Kakashi glanced at the shadow of a tree and then made his way over to the boys, whose grunts of exertion had become listless.

"All right all right you two," Kakashi clapped his hands as Sasuke let himself fall from the tree and Naruto slipped at Kakashi's noise. "It's about time for dinner, we don't want to keep Tsunami-san waiting!"

Naruto and Sasuke walked over to where Sakura had been thinking about how comfortable the grass felt.

"Oi, oi, you look beat, Sakura-chan," Naruto chimed as he and Sasuke looked down at her.

" _Yeah, well, we can't all be stamina freaks, Naruto!"_ A nasty voice whispered in her head. Naruto rubbed the back of his head awkwardly then slowly held out his hand.

Sakura looked at it for a moment. She lifted her arm and grasped his wrist. Naruto hefted her to her feet.

"Thanks," Sakura muttered. Naruto's face split into a dopey grin. Sakura felt far too tired to whack him for getting his head in the clouds. She sighed as they trudged back to the house. _"Oh well, I said I'd be nicer to him, didn't I?"_ She looked over to her crush as he slouched ahead of her, camouflaged with the dim light and his hands in his pockets. _"Still, I wish it had been Sasuke's hand..."_

* * *

"Hey, buncha ninja, looks like ya gone and killed our paycheck!" the horde of mercenary men armed with cheap weapons encroached on the group of exhausted shinobi. Naruto got into a taijutsu stance, for even he had run out of chakra. Kakashi was down on one knee, having already covered his Sharingan to avoid collapsing. Sakura watched from Sasuke's prone form, her face still sticky from tears before he'd woken up. There was no way he was able to fight either, after a brush with death.

A tension broke inside Sakura. Her teammates and her sensei had been through the fight of their lives, even this group of low-lifes with no chakra control to speak of had become a threat.

But she could fight. Everyone had come _so far_.

She had to try.

Sakura sprang up to where her team stood against the enemy. There was plenty of water around the bridge from the battle. She just had to focus, and remember the sequence Kakashi-sensei had taught her.

 _Ne! Inu! Ushi!_

 **Suiton: Suiben no Jutsu!**

At her command, A puddle formed up into a thin cord. Exerting the force of her chakra, Sakura compressed the water to the size of a whip. She couldn't manage much more than that. As she directed the whip at the group of thugs they eyed her jutsu in apprehension. She lay her jutsu horizontally and swept it across the men in a wide arc. As a unit, they stepped back, with grunts of pain.

"Urgh… c'mon guys, this little jutsu doesn't hurt much… let's keep goin'!"

" _Oh no… a jutsu of this caliber will only slow them down!"_ Sakura thought desperately. Kakashi watched with his remaining eye narrowed.

" _I'm surprised she managed that in this situation, however… that jutsu is suited for single targets, since I was prioritizing the battle against Zabuza and Haku,"_ he stood up as he attempted to draw on his chakra. _"She has no options against a group of foes, even if they're weak!"_ Sakura flexed her chakra, remembering weapon explanation lectures at the academy. She directed the water whip forward with as much lashing motion as she could muster, which would produce a greater impact, but could not cover the entire force.

The right side of the enemy forces cringed in acute pain. The left side halted briefly before continuing. Sakura made her chakra lash out again, but it was becoming harder each time. She hit the left side, bringing a few men to their knees in pain.

"Don't let up, men!" the apparent leader shouted, "a whip hurts but it won't kill ya that easily! _Get_ these ninja scum and then run that town dry!"

" _I can't… my chakra…!"_ Tears formed at Sakura's eyes anew as the group began to advance again. Naruto growled and leaped in front of her, his short stature crouched low.

 _Twang!_

A small crossbow bolt appeared in the space between Team Seven's remaining members and the pillagers.

"Hold it right there!" Inari shouted, "You try an' take one step into _our_ island and you'll all die here and now!" He was flanked by dozens of Wave villagers, all waving tools and other improvised weaponry.

"Way to go Inari!" Naruto yelled as Sakura fell to her knees, chakra spent. Naruto laced his fingers in a familiar sign.

 **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**

Only a few Naruto's popped into existence, but ever one of them got ready to charge their attackers.

" _My chakra's too spent for shadow clones… but maybe normal clones will do the job."_ Kakashi flipped a few hand signs and the bridge was bursting with Kakashi look-alikes, though they had no shadows, mass or sound.

"Guh..."

"N-never mind!"

"I ain't dyin' today!"

The Wave villagers cheered at the mercenaries hasty retreat. Naruto and Kakashi let their clones disperse. Zabuza's form, impaled by many swords and spears, sputtered.

"Looks like that's it… Kakashi..." he groaned.

"Yeah..."

"I gotta favor to ask… can you… take me over to Haku?"

As Kakashi began pulling out the blades one by one, Zabuza looked over at Naruto and Sakura.

"You kids… you see me right now? This is what it means to be a ninja… You kill and you let your comrades die… and forget how to be human along the way… until you can manage to have a good death yourself… if you're as lucky as me." Naruto clenched his fists as he watched, leaking tears while his lip quivered. Sakura watched balefully from her knees, frozen at the gruesome sight and his words.

 _Ninja._

* * *

Sakura lay the second wreath upon a garish wooden cross. She wanted to reprimand Naruto further as she slapped his hand away from the food offerings, but even after two weeks Zabuza's words were still fresh in her mind.

"Kakashi-sensei… is that really what ninja are? Like Zabuza and Haku were?" she asked with resignation.

"A shinobi is a weapon," he said, rather than answer her, "they willingly sacrifice bonds as they answer their village's call to service. That much is true whether it's Konohagakure, Chi no Kirigakure, or any other village. It is not a shinobi's place to question this reasoning, or why we exist." It sounded like some recitation that he knew. Sakura knew similar ones, but had spent little time imagining what they meant.

"Screw that..." Naruto muttered. Sasuke glanced at Kakashi slowly, his neck still pained from senbon wounds.

"Is that really what you believe… sensei?"

"Well..." Kakashi looked over at Zabuza's grave, struck with his enormous sword. "That's what every shinobi knows. But in my experience, no matter how hard we try, there's no way to ultimately stop contrary thoughts and feelings from brimming beneath our minds. The longer you keep it there, the worse your life as a shinobi will end up… the way Zabuza's did."

"That settles it then," Naruto announced boldly, "I'm going to create my own Way of the Ninja! I'll decide my own destiny!"

Kakashi gave one of his eye-smiles. Sasuke attempted to suppress a smirk. A warmth went through Sakura's chest.

She wanted that too.

As Team Seven departed from the Land of Waves, Sakura eyed Naruto as he tried to hide his blubbering from Tazuna's family while crossing the completed bridge.

" _What a bonehead,"_ she thought. Naruto was back to normal before they'd even finished crossing. Naruto's voice had become a familiar sound as he began rattling off a list of things he just _had_ to do when he got back. Unsurprisingly, ramen factored into them. Naruto's enthusiasm made her want to make new accomplishments too.

"Uh… Sasuke… when we get home would you like to… maybe… go out with me?"

"Not really, thanks."

"B-but..."

"Hey! You can go out with _me!"_

" _No way_ , knock it off, Naruto!" she lunged at the orange-clad shrimp, who nimbly dodged her strikes, laughing. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, in turn reminding Sasuke of a hen-pecked father. Sasuke was glad for Naruto's distraction, and gave the other two a wide berth.

" _I don't ever want to lose these guys… my team,"_ Sakura thought as she and Naruto continued their mock sparring until she tired out. _"Ugh, I need to get stronger..."_

* * *

 **Hello folks, welcome to my new project! I'll be writing this one inter-changeably with my Pokemon story until that one is finished. Right off the bat, I want to confirm that this will eventually lead towards NaruSaku and SasuHina. It won't really be that way for awhile, but I wanna make that clear. I never really cared for the canon pairings for a number of reasons, but we won't go into that here. Know that I think these two pairings are more interesting and the canon two boring at best. The second pairing is perhaps particularly unusual, but I think it has a lot of potential as a dynamic. You can find a blog post that outlines the dynamic very well on the internet, titled "Quiet Understanding". Kudos to them.**

 **Anyway, I also want to explain that, yes, this will be a full series rewrite, and I fully intend to have Sakura and Hinata as the primary characters for much of it. I can't write Naruto and Sasuke off as… perhaps "less important", however. I'll need to go over to them sometimes. An ambitious a project as any, to be sure. I intended this as a "for want of a nail" style, in which one small change early on drastically affects future outcomes. And come part II, it will. Be. Drastic. I wouldn't want to read it if it were too much like the original series, but it's also important to treat canon with respect. In this case, that "nail" would be Kakashi giving Sakura something else to do besides guarding Tazuna while Naruto and Sasuke work for their victory. I considered that this means Sakura wouldn't get that interaction with the people of Wave, but I decided Naruto getting it instead via clone could be a trade-off.**

 **Remember, writing stories is about solving a single problem, namely, 'how can I make X happen?' I started thinking about this story after what happened in "The Last", where Sakura basically told Naruto that his feelings were imaginary. Uh, what? Anyway, writing stories is also a way for the author to express their thoughts and feelings. So, here they are. I am incredibly adept at wielding and interpreting canon, so I still want this to feel like "Naruto". For that purpose characterization is incredibly important. Also, an author should _never_ write characters as if they hate them. Respect. There are plenty of characters everywhere that people hate, but that doesn't make them bad characters.**

 **Peace.**


	2. Flower

"Sakura," Sasuke sighed, "if you have time to ask me such frivolous things, you should be training. Naruto had the lowest scores in class, but he's already stronger than you. Didn't you want to get stronger?"

Sakura's shoulders slumped. She looked over in the direction Naruto had run off, practically skipping with his Chunin Exam form in hand. Sasuke's words pierced her chest with the same accuracy he trained upon his targets.

"...I… didn't say anything about becoming stronger..." she said meekly. Sasuke followed her gaze.

"You didn't have to. I can see that you do. Naruto's pretty useless on these D-ranks, but what about the next time we get a mission like the Land of Waves? He's an idiot, but I know I can count on him when the time comes. When… I went under back then, Haku's jutsu was broken by the time I woke up. Naruto must have beaten him somehow..." he said the last part more to himself than to her.

"Well… what do you think I should work on?" Sakura replied, avoiding his eyes. Sasuke sighed again. This was Kakashi's job, not his.

"I think you need more chakra." He slid his hands into his pockets and turned to leave. "See you for the first exam."

Sakura watched him walk off, then went to find Naruto, tucking her own Chunin Exam form in her pouch.

* * *

 **Suiton: Suiben no Jutsu!**

Sakura's whip materialized out of the damp ground and quickly snatched up Naruto after the strange grass ninja used some strange jutsu against his stomach. She set him on a tree, panting, trying not to think about the sight of him freezing up in pain at the impact and then suddenly going limp as the grass ninja tossed him down to the ground below. She dumped the images alongside the visions of her own gruesome death she'd seen earlier. A blank ringing had been going through her mind, masking the terror that lay in wait if she stopped to catch her breath.

" _No way would he have survived that fall..."_ she thought in relief.

Orochimaru twisted his tongue in thought. _"Hmm… Water Style… This wasn't in Kabuto's notes. She must have only learned this technique recently, probably while away from the village. And yet, she must not have practiced very much since then if Kabuto has never seen it… to be able to use it this much already she must possess an impeccable chakra control."_ He eyed the fatigue that appeared in her brow as Sakura lay Naruto against a tree. _"She's still no more threatening than before. Her stamina is very low, but that chakra control could make her very capable someday… no matter."_ He as a she turned back to the prey that sat trembling in fear. _"What will you do now, Sasuke-kun?"_

"...Hey! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted. Sasuke flinched. "You're right about Naruto… he's a klutz… he gets in the way… and he's not very bright… But…! At least… he's _doing_ something! At least Naruto would _never_ be such a coward!"

Sasuke held his breath.

" _Hate me so that you may kill me. Hate me so that you may live. Live on in the shame of your weakness."_

" _NO!"_ Reckless abandon filled Sasuke. His Sharingan once again flared to life. Naruto's prone form slumped in the branches, while Sakura's panic-filled gaze constantly passed between him, their teammate, and the impossible enemy. Chakra began to burn beneath his fingertips, itching to become cleansing fire.

" _How could I possibly do as he says..."_ Sasuke thought as he clenched a kunai between his teeth. _"What good would it be to survive long enough to face him… if I don't even have the guts to walk the edge between life and death now?"_

Orochimaru watched Sasuke's charge with glee. He released his chakra from the constraints that prevented attention from sensors, it's gale force bellowing, beckoning Sasuke of the Uchiha Clan for a fight.

* * *

Sakura desperately clung to Sasuke's hand as he screamed from some unbearable agony

"C'mon!" she whimpered, and she felt him clench up, trying to drive the pain away, but he broke again, collapsing into her lap, and passed out.

" _What… what should I do?"_ She flinched over Sasuke's form as some crows flew by.

Sakura's muscles wrung with pain as she hauled Naruto and Sasuke beneath some tree roots before the sun fell. The distraction of exertion was welcome to hold back the trauma of her team's first day in the second Chunin Exam.

" _Well, what did you expect?_ " a voice in her head whispered softly, _"did you think they would be_ easy? _Perhaps you were hoping for Naruto and Sasuke to do all the fighting while you stayed safe behind their backs?"_ She shook her head. No matter what, she had to keep them safe, until… until…

When? Until they wake up? Until the morning? Until the five days were up and they could go home, defeated but safe? Sakura did not know.

After tending to their collective wounds as best she could she could only watch over them and keep an eye for intruders. As the night wore on her exhaustion took its toll. Through try she did to stay awake Sakura eventually nodded off.

" _Orochimaru… I feel like I've heard that name somewhere..."_ she snored mercifully quietly.

Naruto sat up, stretching, while Sasuke pulled the damp cloth from his forehead. Both praised her for looking after them. She was so relieved tears welled up behind her eyes. Then, Orochimaru's torn face lunged at the boys. She went to shout a warning, but her voice had frozen like it had done back in the trees after Naruto had fallen. Orochimaru morphed into a huge snake and opening a gaping, fleshy mouth to consume her oblivious teammates whole. Sakura gasped into wakefulness. She immediately looked to her teammates. No change. _"It was just a dream..."_ Sakura looked to the sky.

" _There's a bit of lightness… the sun will be up in an hour or two."_ While she felt guilty for falling asleep on watch, a part of her also knew that she needed rest in order to fend off any potential threats. She just didn't know what to do. The academy had done little to prepare her for a situation where there was so much uncertainty, where everything could go wrong.

" _It looks like I was able to recover some of my chakra,"_ Sakura noted. She didn't want to do nothing, however… _"The only water I can account for is in the canteens… how can I use my water jutsu if something happens?"_ She looked around, uncomfortable despite the traps she'd set up earlier remaining untouched as of yet. A thought struck her. _"What if I try something else? Not water, but… earth."_ Still under the cover of the tree, she formed the Seal of the Snake.

* * *

Sakura grimaced as Ino's deft fingertips nudged one of the many bruises on her head. Neither had said anything more after exchanging the usual barbs regarding their mutual affection of Sasuke. Well, this didn't feel like a usual situation. Sakura looked over at the pile of pink locks that she'd cut away without a trace of remorse.

" _So this time… please have_ my _back."_

Had it been enough? What had she accomplished with that, after Ino's team had come to her defense and Sasuke had woken to beat them all on his own?

The pit of inadequacy once again ate at her from the inside out.

"Maybe… no matter what… I can't measure up… I'll never be strong enough to stand at Naruto's and Sasuke's sides..." Sakura murmured. She yelped as Ino gave her hair a sharp tug.

"Now listen here, you did enough, got it? Holding out for reinforcements isn't good for nothing, you know! Quit talking like that, you'll make me depressed..." Sakura grimaced at Ino's shrill voice.

"But… Naruto and Sasuke are already so much stronger than we were at the academy, and it's like… it's like I'm still the same..."

"Well, I don't know about _Naruto_ , but…" Sakura frowned at Ino's tone, but she went on, " _who_ was it that was the top overall student at the academy? It wasn't you, it wasn't even Sasuke, it was _me_. And just look at how much help _I_ was as soon as the enemy figured out my jutsu! How do you think _that_ makes me feel? I'll tell you, it makes me sick..." Ino brushed another bruise but Sakura smiled through the pain. Sakura thought of Naruto, who Chouji was now attempting to prod awake.

"I guess our grades didn't matter as much as we'd thought."

"Tch, don't get _too_ complacent. I once snooped in some records, turns out that while _none_ of our grades measure up in the grand scheme of things, guess who I found just short of the top student of all time? _Itachi Uchiha!_ Maybe _our_ grades didn't count for anything, but I don't wanna hear how useless they are when you look at people like _that."_

"Itachi… Uchiha?" Like Orochimaru, Sakura felt she knew that name too.

"Oh damn, I forgot you're not from a clan and didn't know..." Ino said in a small voice. "Ugh… well… _please_ promise me you won't tell anyone that I told you? Especially Sasuke? _Please please please-"_

"Okay, okay! You have my word, Ino, go on,"

" _You promise?_ " Ino said dangerously. "Well… Itachi was… well, _is_ , I guess, Sasuke's older brother. He was supposed to be incredibly strong… He became an ANBU captain at _thirteen_ , the same age we are now, pretty much…" Ino paused. " _He_ was the one who killed everyone in his own clan in a single night. Apparently he's an S-class rogue ninja now, wanted dead or alive." Sakura was silent. How could she have guessed… his own brother, how could she have _imagined…_

"...That must be the man he wants to kill."

"Huh?"

"When Team Seven started, we all shared our dreams for the future but Sasuke… just said he didn't have any dreams… but that there was someone he wanted to kill at any cost."

"Well… three guesses who, then," Ino said heavily.

"And… just now, when he woke up..."

" _I finally understand… I am an avenger. I must do anything to obtain power. Even if I abandon myself to evil for it._

Sakura and Ino looked over to where Sasuke sat cross-legged by himself, staring into the darkness of the tree roots.

"Do you think we'll ever be able to see the things in his heart?" Sakura said softly.

"Didn't I just explain to you how I'm not nearly as smart as you seem to think I am? How should I know, forehead girl?"

Neji looked over to Sasuke Uchiha as his own team prepared to leave and continue the exam. _"What my eyes perceived then and now seem totally different. Perhaps my vision is still incomplete. Before their untimely demise, the Uchiha were hailed as Konoha's strongest shinobi. Now that they are gone, it is we Hyuga who take up that title… Is what I saw the reason, or is there something more?"_ Neji returned his focus to his team as they left through the trees. _"I'll make sure to watch him. He would surely be a powerful opponent."_

Sasuke watched the play of the shadows as they slowly grew under the sun. Ever since this exam had started, he'd felt deep within him that things would change even more than during the Land of Waves. He'd rushed towards that change then, eager for strength. What was he now? What would he become?

" _It was because of me… Mother… Father… everyone in the clan… they died because of_ me _. Because_ I _didn't have enough power..."_

* * *

Sasuke's hands trembled as he attempted to form chakra to unravel the genjutsu of these rain ninja. His neck burned.

"I… have… no more chakra… but I have to..."

"Sasuke-kun, please wait!" Sakura whispered harshly. "I think I can find the real bodies!" Sasuke didn't lower his Ram Seal and looked over at her.

"What do you mean…?" he grunted while Naruto continued wailing on the illusions one by one.

"I'll tell you about it later, but right now, please-"

Sasuke hoped he wouldn't regret this. Well, she was his teammate…

"Fine, go now, hurry-" he moved his hand to clutch at his neck, something that didn't escape Sakura's notice, but she had to solve the problem before her. She carefully thought about the seals she had made earlier, ending with the Snake Seal.

 **Doton: Tsuchi no hoji!**

There was a light tremble. With each site pinpointed in her mind craters rose underfoot of the strange clones. At that moment she felt the lack of pressure in her chakra as the stone grip filtered through each body uninhibited. Hurriedly, she scoured her extended senses, and _felt_ it.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, "none of them are real! They're attacking at you from underground, hurry and get them out while I can still immobilize them!" She crouched as her chakra began falling rapidly.

"Y-yeah! You got it!" Naruto overcame his surprise and grabbed hold of the frozen limbs sticking out of the earth, yanking them free with a roar and nailing them with a single charge.

Sakura sighed with relief as Kabuto looked at Sakura pensively from his place in the dirt.

" _How unusual… when did she learn that? Maybe she'll be worth something to her team after all. It probably won't be a big deal, but I'll inform Orochimaru-sama at the next rendezvous."_ He discreetly retrieved his fallen glasses and got up after inspecting them for damage.

"Well! It looks like you guys saved me!" Kabuto rubbed his head sheepishly. "I didn't know you were proficient in earth jutsu, Sakura-san!" Sakura looked between them all, somewhat awed by the success of her technique. She looked to her orange teammate as he crowed triumphantly.

"Look, look! We got us a heaven scroll!" Sasuke sat down on the ground with a long drawn breath.

"Um, Sasuke-kun… is it that thing on your neck again…?" Sakura uttered quietly.

"Don't worry about it," he muttered. "That was a nice move… Sakura."

"Yeah!" Naruto cut in, "I don't really know what you did, but you really saved our necks there, Sakura-chan! You did great!"

Unfortunately for Naruto, Sakura barely heard his praise as Sasuke's words drove all rational thought from her mind.

* * *

Orochimaru smiled contemplatively as he looked over the results of Kabuto's "harvest".

" _Sasuke-kun made it through. This confirms it. He's simply_ perfect _. To think Naruto-kun's chakra is capable of such great lengths even after my seal made a mess of his chakra circulation. And little Sakura-chan… An earth technique. Two types of elemental jutsu at her age! And Kabuto's report indicates that she must have made it on her own while under adverse conditions."_ Orochimaru uttered a low chuckle. _"Now that I think about it… I could try out_ that _experiment again. Why, I've never had such a promising candidate for it…!"_

He grinned sinisterly as he made his way to the preliminary stage of the Chunin Exams.

* * *

Sasuke placed all his focus in putting one foot in front of the next as he made his way back to the arena of the Third Exam preliminaries. He was thankful that at least the sealing had been done in a room on the spectator level and he wouldn't have to climb the stairs again. How pathetic, he thought. If nothing else, the so-called Cursed Seal didn't hurt anymore, nor inhibit his chakra.

" _If I had used my Sharingan back in the forest, I probably wouldn't be walking right now."_

For perhaps the first time, he felt glad to have Sakura on his team.

He made it back to his pink and blonde companions.

"What'd I miss?"

"Oh—Sasuke-kun!" Sakura whirled to him. "How is your-"

"It's fine now," he interrupted. "Kakashi put a sealing jutsu on it. It won't bother me anymore." Naruto shot a familiar look of confusion.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Er—just some first aid stuff, Naruto!" Sakura said hurriedly. _"It's best if he doesn't worry about this. I want him to focus on his matches and do well..."_ The white lie wriggled out of her like a filthy parasite, however.

"Ah, well, I guess I don't really know about that stuff. I've never seemed to need it anyway..." Naruto paused. "Eh? Where's Kakashi-sensei? He didn't come back with you?" Sasuke shrugged lazily.

"Dunno. He said he had something to take care of and I went ahead. You know how he is. Anyway, what happened? I'm tired and don't wanna talk." Sakura paid his consternation little mind, relieved that that thing on his neck was better.

"Well… It was Shino Aburame from class against that Sound ninja with the wind blasts." She shuddered curiously. "Um… Shino blew off his arms using b-bugs. We're waiting to see who will fight next..."

"It was creepy but kinda cool!" Naruto prodded him, which Sasuke ignored. Bugs? The Aburame Clan was one of Konoha's Four Noble Clans. Sasuke seemed to recall hearing about their techniques from…

Anyway, the next fight. Fortunately the screen began flashing with jumbled-up names. He didn't recognize either of the names it landed on, but noted that Kabuto's teammate and one of the Sand Ninja went down.

Naruto moaned about the fight being boring. Sakura replied that the Sand Ninja seemed to be getting crushed. Something felt wrong to Sasuke, however. Then, lo and behold…

"A puppet…!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Indeed," Kakashi spoke suddenly behind them. With a practiced flash Sakura restrained Naruto from falling over the railing in fright.

"Gah! _Quit doing that,_ Kakashi-sensei!"

"Consider it part of your stealth training, Naruto," he replied happily.

"Ah… You saved me again, Sakura-chan..." Naruto wheezed as he held his stomach where it'd come up against the railing.

Sasuke retrained his eyes on the fight. The tide had turned in an instant.

"Shinobi operate through deception," Kakashi continued. "Among all of them, few are capable of the level of trickery of Sunagakure's kugujutsu puppets. It is a true shinobi art."

"It's over just like that..." Sakura said with a note of fear as the proctor called the match. Once again she felt the root of doubt.

" _They all have such unique chakra skills… I was beginning to think I was pretty good with chakra, but..."_

"Sheesh… they're all a bunch of weirdos…" Naruto grumbled.

"You're one to talk, don't you think, Naruto?" Kakashi said breezily.

"Hee hee~ he's got a point there, Naruto!" Sakura giggled.

"Aw, not you too, Sakura-channnn~" he groaned. For all her worries, Sakura laughed cheerfully at his expression.

"Sakura, look," Sasuke said sharply.

 _Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka_ , the scoreboard read.

Sasuke eyed Sakura as she first stared in shock at the scoreboard. Then she looked over at Ino, who matched her gaze with a mirrored expression. There was an undercurrent of uncertainty. Sasuke saw hesitation, anxiety. History. He seemed to remember they'd been friends.

" _Hmph… don't fight over me. Fight for something better."_

And without any words, Sakura's fist clenched and her expression tightened. Sasuke smirked.

"Go on," he said.

"Go, Sakura-chan!"

"...Alright."

* * *

Whatever hollow had been in Sakura's stomach all throughout the Chunin Exam coalesced then into a creeping entity that stretched her mind thin. She was already so different from what had left the academy. It had been maybe six months since then, but after the Forest of Death she was thinking analytically. She was more aware of her surroundings wherever she went. Where her kunai pouch had gone rarely used she now felt uneasy without it. The sights of blood and violence had started getting easier to bear.

Sakura grit her teeth. Did _Ino_ face what she had against Orochimaru? She didn't think so. She had already endured more.

A touch of sentiment. Suddenly she didn't like the thought of Ino experiencing such a vision of pure bloodlust that had made her freeze in terror.

" _Can it! She's not your friend anymore! We're… enemies..."_ Sakura thought as they took positions in the arena.

"I never thought I'd be fighting you, Sakura. Not yet..." Ino didn't look happy.

" _What's with her? That pig would normally be gloating to rub my face in the pavement."_

"Sakura-chan! Go get her! Win the fight!" Naruto cheered boisterously. That spark lit something in Sakura's heart.

" _I'll make her take me seriously!"_

"Begin!" The proctor called.

Whatever Sakura had thought, Ino had no problem matching her charge. Sakura motioned her arm, but struck out with a kick instead. Ino didn't fall for the feint and ducked under it in a sturdy stance. Ino retaliated with some quick jabs that Sakura sidestepped deftly. She continued with kicks, trying to dole out superior damage with their similar strengths. Ino stepped back towards mid-range.

" _After forcing to mid-range, follow up with ranged weaponry."_ Sakura threw a handful of kunai, but to her surprise Ino caught the first one and swiftly returned fire, deflecting her attack and reset the pace of the fight. Her heart pounding, Sakura decided to again go in first. They matched taijutsu until Ino managed to get a winding jab under Sakura's ribs. Sakura flinched, trying to control her breath. Instinctively, she knew Ino had an opening and felt the fist coming.

But Ino faltered. Sakura didn't move, but the impact had no damage. Neither of them continued. Ino stared at the hand she'd landed Sakura with. Something rippled in Sakura's memory.

" _Am I just a withering flower to you, Ino? Can't take me seriously because I'm still just a bud in your eyes? I'll_ make _you understand!"_

"In this moment," Sakura began, "I will not fight you over Sasuke."

"What was that?" Ino began to snarl. Good.

"You two just aren't _meant_ for each other, and _I'm_ the one who's stronger than you. You're not worth my time!"

 _Get angry, Ino._

"Sakura…! _Do you know who you're talking to?"_ Ino growled. Sakura had never seen her eyes this narrowed. She looked like a hissing cat. "Don't let your _forehead_ mess with your brain, you brat!" In admittance, Sakura did feel a twinge of fear. She'd once idolized Ino. Seeing her look and talk at her like that made her stomach churn.

" _Will I ever escape being a bud, Ino? For so long, I believed in those words you gave me. They were with me every step of the way here!_ You _made me what I am today!"_ Sakura smiled sadly to herself. " _So please… fight me!"_ To Ino's surprise, Sakura took her forehead protector and retied it across her brow. Finally, she smirked and began to do the same.

"I understand, Sakura."

" _And I won't lose to you anymore!"_

* * *

" _Crap… I can't move!"_ Sakura struggled against the special binding that held her in place. _"Since her hair was recently part of her own body, it can conduct Ino's chakra very easily!"_ Ino gave a predatory grin.

"Now then… I guess I have to _make_ you give up!"

 **Ninpo: Shintenshin no jutsu!**

" _I wanted to catch her in place with my new justu… Instead I got caught in hers..."_ Sakura thought as her view darkened.

…

…

... _kura-chan! SAKURA-CHAN! Don't give up!"_

 _T_ _hat voice sounded familiar._

" _Tch, how annoying." Ino…_

" _Hey! You gave everything you had to make it here! You'll be a disgrace to kunoichi if you lose to that Sasuke-obsessed girl!"_

" _Damn Naruto..." Ino's said in a low voice._

 _Naruto…?_

 _"Naruto's so annoying! Anyway, that's right… definitely not to Ino!"_

"Were you saying you want to concede?" Sakura heard the proctor say.

" _Hell no!"_ Sakura burst out, the nature, the personality she suppressed to try and impress Sasuke shoving Ino from unceremoniously from her mind.

" _Ino! You're gonna have a bad time if you don't get out of me quick!"_ Sakura's mind snarled.

" _I… can't hold on… Kai!"_

And then they were both on their knees in exhaustion.

"It's like you have two minds… What kinda crap is that…?" Ino panted.

"Something I always tried to shove deep inside me. An anger and strength that I now depend on to survive being a ninja!" Sakura responded, no less winded.

Ino scoffed as they made it to their feet. There would only be one more attack, they felt.

" _I have nothing else left!"_ Sakura halted mid-charge, causing Ino to miss her attack. _"Now!"_ She formed three hand signs as fast as she could. She knew getting quick with seals in the academy would come in handy.

 **Doton: Tsuchi no hoji!**

Ino's feet caught during her recovery, encased in stone.

" _What? An earth jutsu!?"_ Ino cried mentally.

Sakura landed a solid blow, knocking Ino out of the bind and to the stone floor. She did not rise. Sakura planted her feet in an effort to keep standing. Finally…

"Winner, Sakura Haruno."

Sakura didn't much register the win. She allowed herself to fall, having no chakra left. She was stopped by something that didn't feel like the tiled floor.

"My my… our little genin sure put on a performance," Kakashi said soothingly from above Sakura's head.

"...Sensei..."

"Take it easy. I'll get you back upstairs." With little feeling the air moved as Kakashi retreated back to the spectators. In the corner of her eye she saw Asuma-sensei do the same with Ino's prone form. He set her down alongside Ino against the wall. Somehow, she managed to hold her head up to look at her color-coded teammates.

"...You did well, Sakura," Sasuke issued. This time, Sakura did not lose herself to it.

"That's two out of three now..." Sakura groaned as she looked to Naruto.

"Sakura-chan was amazing! I always knew it, of course!" Naruto grinned at her.

"Hey… Naruto. Thanks for earlier."

Her peace said, Sakura promptly went under.

* * *

" _Poor Tenten-san..."_

" _It was unfortunate. Tenten simply had a bad match up."_

" _The sand ninja are really strong..."_

"Well, look who's finally awake." Sakura looked up, her brain reorganizing itself. She saw Ino sitting idly next to her and Naruto waving his arms down towards the arena while Sasuke slouched over the railing.

"Ino..."

"How do you think it makes me look when the winner of the fight sleeps for longer than me?" Winner… she won! "Still… I never expected that would happen. I looked in your mind during the first exam. I knew about your little water trick, and how there was no water in this arena. But I guess I didn't look hard enough..." Ino picked up Sakura's headband where it had fallen off of her. "Here..." Ino smiled. "I can see it now, Sakura… You've bloomed into a beautiful flower!"

 _Ino… You were my friend… my only friend for so long…!_

Sakura broke down.

* * *

 **Aaaaand that seems to do it this time. I got inspired after the end of the anime proper (goodbye my perfect, flawed friend). I want to work on the next chapter immediately, so hopefully I'll manage to sort my priorities out. I'm relinquishing Zelda and RuneScape for you guys… for the moment.**

 **I was really glad for the amount of response for the first chapter! Remember what happens next in the exams guys? We have an important fight coming up! Try and see what will be different this time around.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Iggy**


	3. Challenge

" _U! Zu! Ma! Ki! Naruto Barrage!"_ Kiba's head spun rapidly towards the arena floor, his body flopping unceremoniously in the air.

"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki."

" _Hell yeah! Nice going Naruto!"_ Sakura pumped her fist jubilantly, the tiredness of her battles forgotten.

"OOOOOH! As expected of Naruto-kun!" Lee proclaimed with fiery eyes next to her. The joy was contagious as Team Ten enthusiastically discussed the major upset.

" _Good job, Naruto-kun!"_ Hinata thought with relief. _"You were wrong, Kiba-kun. No matter what… Naruto-kun never gives in. That's why he was stronger than you today."_ She held her fist to her chest to ease the anxious beating within.

Naruto looked between the floor where Kiba lay and the hand which had sent him there. A primal satisfaction welled up. Here was the proof he'd sought his whole life." _It's happening… I'm getting stronger!"_ He pounced back up the stairs without so much as a pained grimace.

Right towards Hinata.

" _Ah! He's coming! What to do, what to do..."_ She twiddled her thumbs over the small jar of ointment. The timing began to slip away as he walked by without a glance.

"Na! ...Naruto-kun..." she squeaked.

"Hm? Hinata?" He stopped and casually glanced over his shoulder at her. Hinata couldn't stop the color painting her cheeks.

" _Think… one step at a time..."_ She gingerly began to hold out the jar, the black color contrasting with her light jacket.

"Oh, what do ya got there, Hinata?" Naruto bent in to inspect the jar.

"…!"

"It's ointment for wounds," Kurenai chimed, pleased with her student's boldness. "She wants you to have it, Naruto."

"Hmm..." Naruto pondered this, then snatched it from Hinata's trembling hands. "Gee thanks, Hinata! And thanks for trying to help me back on that dumb paper test too, you're nice!" He skipped back to his team as Hinata gave a small, dopey smile.

She was too distracted to notice Neji scoff in her direction.

"Hey, loser… don't take my jutsu," Sasuke looked at Naruto with disdain.

"Like you're one to talk, Bakasuke! At least I don't need some freaky eyes to learn jutsu!" Sakura ignored the boys' bickering and brazenly slung her arms around their necks.

"You guys, we all made it!" She squealed. Naruto grinned in agreement while Sasuke groaned at the force, still exhausted.

"I told you guys I'm tired..."

"Don't be such a wimp, Sasuke!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun..." Sakura freed her arms in embarrassment.

"Besides..." Sasuke rotated his sore neck, "you know what the Chunin Exam finals are, right? There's a good chance we'll be fighting each other."

"Oh yeah!"

"Oh..." Sakura paled at this realization.

"Well, don't worry about it for awhile," Kakashi spoke up, "the fact that you guys made it there is more important. I don't even know when was the last time an entire team of rookies made it to the Chunin Exam finals."

"Even still, one of us has got to win the whole thing, okay guys?" Naruto looked around between Sasuke and Sakura.

"If by 'we' you mean someone besides you..."

"Hey! You'd better not lose before we fight! I'll accept nothing less than meeting in the final round!"

Sakura sighed. They never gave it a rest.

Down in the arena, Hinata reluctantly stowed away another jar of ointment after offering it to Kiba's stretcher.

"Heh… you should worry more about yourself for once, Hinata." He'd talked big, but didn't seem too upset by his loss to the class clown. Naruto and Kiba had been as close to friends at the academy as he'd had, along with Shikamaru, Hinata knew. "Listen, more than half of the opponents have gone now. That Sand guy is still left… if you match him, you should withdraw, or you could get killed like those guys in the forest..." Hinata didn't disagree with this. "Also, Neji hasn't gone yet. You know what will happen if you fight him? He _hates_ you. He'll show no mercy, so please don't fight him either." Hinata said nothing, weighing the truth in his words.

"It's time to start the next match!" The proctor called out creakily.

 _Hinata Hyuga vs. Neji Hyuga._

Kiba cursed. Hinata's eyes widened like a frightened rabbit.

" _This will be an interesting match,"_ The Third Hokage thought to himself from afar, fingering his pipe.

Beneath the folded hands of the statue representing Shinobi, the two foremost young Hyuga approached each other.

"I never thought we would battle here… Hinata-sama," Neji said tonelessly.

"Neji-niisan..." Hinata said, as much sad as she was afraid.

"'Niisan?" Sakura exclaimed up in the stands.

"Eh? Those two are siblings?" Naruto joined.

"No," Sasuke replied shortly.

"They're first cousins," Kakashi filled in, "however, their fathers were identical twins, which basically makes them half-siblings. Within the Hyuga, one of Konoha's oldest and most distinguished clans, they are essentially of equal descent… even though Hinata is of the Main Family and Neji is of the Branch Family."

"Main Family and Branch Family?" Naruto parroted. Sasuke didn't feel like explaining. He was uneasy. Next to them, Lee held up a finger.

"Yes. Hinata is from the Main Family, or its central lineage, and Neji is from the Branch Family, or those within the clan of more tangentially related families," he dutifully lectured.

"So it's a battle between family… that sounds terrible..." Sakura said quietly. Sasuke gripped the railing more tightly.

"I agree. Furthermore..." Lee began again, "I've heard that over the years there have been various incidents of discontent between members of the Main and Branch Families, and they're no longer on very good terms."

"Why's that?" Naruto replied.

"Because of jutsu..." Sasuke spoke up.

"Jutsu? What do you mean, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura queried.

"Each clan has various secret techniques. For the Hyuga, many of their techniques are restricted to members of the Main Family and the Branch members are denied their use. My father once told me that this restriction was… harshly enforced, somehow." Sasuke's voice had a small growl to it that Sakura and Naruto picked up on. They didn't raise any more questions.

"Then this is like a clash of fates… but between two who are all but brother and sister?" Sakura mumbled.

" _A clash of fates… family..."_ Sasuke thought privately.

The match was declared.

"Before anything else, there's something I'd like to say. Hinata-sama… withdraw," Neji said coldly. "You're not suited to the life of a Shinobi." Hinata cringed. "You're a nice person who doesn't like conflict, who often goes along with what other people do or say. You do not have faith in your own abilities… a not invalid concern." Hinata burned with shame, wanting nothing more than to escape. "For example, the Chunin Exams require a team of three, so you signed up along with your team even though you would rather remain safely as a Genin. You don't want to be here." Neji frowned harshly at Hinata's troubled gaze. "Am I wrong?"

"T-that's not true! I… I just… I know that, and… I wanted to _change_." Hinata stuttered.

" _Poor Hinata, I never noticed how tough she has it..."_ Sakura thought sadly. Suddenly her grudge match against Ino seemed tame. Naruto started intently at Hinata, while Sasuke watched stonily. Hinata's teacher discreetly laced her hands in concern. She remembered the day Team Eight had passed her test.

" _Hinata will be in my care on missions," Kurenai told Hiashi Hyuga while a young girl clutched a kunai, panting on the dojo floor on all fours. "But is that really okay? If Hinata is the heiress to the clan, do you wish her to be active on missions? Even for Genin, there is a risk of death."_

" _Get up, Hanabi," Hiashi said impatiently to his youngest. "Do as you wish," he addressed Kurenai without turning his all-seeing gaze on her. "We in the Hyuga have no use for Hinata. She is a failure who cannot even defeat her sister, whose age she exceeds by five years." Kurenai bit her lip in indignation as she watched Hanabi climb to her feet, the kunai trained as if prepared to cut an opponent's throat. "If that's all you're here to say, then leave. You're in the way of training." Hiashi dismissed her. While Kurenai stewed she was startled by Hinata's presence just outside the sliding shoji. She did not look her new sensei in the eye._

" _Be strong, Hinata..."_ Kurenai thought as she anxiously watched across the railing.

"Hinata-sama… the Main Family has spoiled you," Neji began again. "People cannot change. Those who fail continue to fail. You are who you are."

Naruto began rubbing his fists together furiously. _"Who does this guy think he is?"_

"People remain the same," Neji went on, "which also means that they are not equal. This is where terms like 'failure' and 'elite' come from. They constantly judge each other on whatever they can perceive while also being forced to live within the confines of their limitations. Those limitations will always be the same, just as you are from the Main Family, and I, the Branch Family."

A vein throbbed in Naruto's temple. Hinata stood struck numb with horror.

Neji pushed chakra into his milky eyes. "With my Byakugan I can perceive _more_. Right now, you want to run and hide somewhere."

"Byakugan?" Naruto heard Sakura ask Kakashi.

"The kekkei genkai of the Hyuga clan, and one of the Three Great Dojutsu, along with the Sharingan. Because of that, some say that the distant ancestors of the Hyuga and Uchiha clans share a common link."

"Even if it's true, no one can trace the two clans as far back as it would have to be, so no one really cares about it," Sasuke said, trying to distract himself. _"_ _Why am I so uneasy? Is it because the way Neji's talking down to Hinata is just like when..."_ Sasuke halted this thought. _"I need to calm down."_ He eased up on the railing.

"As for the Byakugan," Kakashi said, "while the Sharingan has many specialized abilities, the Byakugan functions in rather broader terms, and it's ability to see what others can't surpasses the Sharingan as such."

As Sasuke watched Hinata's wide-eyed terror, he activated his Sharingan despite the chakra exhaustion he still felt. He knew Neji was also watching her. The Sharingan suggested to him meanings behind each of Hinata's docile moves, telling him more about Hinata and how much Neji's words affected her.

"Just now..." Sasuke heard Neji, "your eyes moved to the upper left. This indicates a memory from your bitter past. Then, your eyes moved to the bottom right. You are now imagining an experience of physical and emotional suffering… a foresight of our fight predicted by your past experiences."

" _His Byakugan is good,"_ Sasuke admitted, " _I hope I get to face it in the finals."_

"That way you hold up your arms is as if you hope to build a wall between yourself and what's in front of you. You seem to feel that I am correct."

Hinata was frozen. Her breathing accelerated to a dizzying frenzy. She wanted to be in her bed, she wanted to be home, she wanted to be away from Neji and all the people watching her…

"You know in your heart, then… you cannot change—"

"She can!" Naruto shouted. Neji turned slowly. Hinata gasped up at the stands. "You don't get to decide what's in a person's heart, DUMB-ASS! Hinata, enough of his crap, give this guy what's _coming_ to him!" Naruto puffed like a bull. Sakura stared at him in disbelief, then turned to give Hinata an encouraging smile. Sasuke only narrowed his Sharingan at the two Hyuga. "You don't have to take this from him! Return the favor!" Naruto yelled down, panting with rage.

Hinata's breath slowed. Her posture straightened. Suddenly, the answers seemed simple. It wasn't good to think so hard on this. She would enter combat with all her strength, and not worry about the result.

" _I don't want to run any more!"_ Her Byakugan blazed. Sasuke watched her stance through his Sharingan. Deep within him, excitement stirred. His eyes and his instincts told him this was one fight he didn't want to miss. _"_ Neji-niisan. Let us fight." Sasuke had never heard Hinata speak so clearly.

Hinata and Neji's palms met; elegant, swift, deadly. They blocked, parried, and dodged without ever changing posture or giving ground.

" _Amazing… I'm positive Hinata never used taijutsu like that in the academy,"_ Sakura thought in fascination.

"Yeah, that's it, Hinata! Pow! Wham! Give that punk something he'll never forget!" Naruto swung his fists around wildly over the railing.

" _No doubt. Fighting a Hyuga at close range is a death sentence. The Gentle Fist style cannot be countered by hand in an even match."_ Sasuke saw the bursts of chakra from their hands that others did not, knowing that a successful hit could cause massive internal damage. He caught the gap in Neji's tempo at the same time Hinata did.

"Did she get him!?" Sakura burst.

"No, it was just a graze..." Naruto ground out. Sasuke knew better, as did Neji's teammate Lee.

"Attacking chakra circulation… Just what are these people…?" Sakura uttered to herself. Sasuke had tuned out the lecture on the Gentle Fist. He could see it clearly.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, what do you mean by the chakra circulation?" Naruto directed to his bookish teammate.

"Ah, another question from Naruto that he should have learned in class..." Sakura groaned.

Sasuke just kept watching the fight as Hinata and Neji returned to trading deathly soft blows. _"Neji's using his fingers more, why?"_ he thought. His Sharingan could not see chakra coils the way the Byakugan could. He darted his gaze between their hands, trying to pick up what the chakra they expelled was saying. _"Wait… Hinata's hits are expelling less and less chakra. His fingers… Don't tell me he's..."_

"Hinata can't win..." Sasuke said quietly to himself. When both combatants drew back and prepared a mutual strike, he knew it was over; Hinata's fingertips were dark.

Sakura gasped as the two force palms landed where each person's heart was.

"All right, she got him!" Naruto punched a fist through the air.

"No, she didn't." Sasuke cut in. _"But he got her..."_

"What do you—" Sakura began. She did not continue as blood splashed from Hinata's mouth, gagging her. She roughly shoved Neji's arm aside and lunged for a second hit. Neji halted her arm and drove his fingers into its underside.

" _Oho… so that's why he's called the most talented of the young Hyuga."_ The Third Hokage observed. Neji slowly rolled up Hinata's sleeve, where angry red dots adorned her pale skin.

"As I thought..." Sasuke said. "He got her tenketsu. I didn't know the Byakugan could see them."

"What? Then, then—" Sakura yelped.

"There's nothing she can do now… It's over."

" _Whaddya mean?_ What the hell are tenketsu?" Naruto yelled.

"Y-you mean… this whole time..." Hinata panted as her blood spotted Neji's hands.

"It seems what my eyes and yours see are quite different, Hinata-sama," Neji said simply. Sasuke felt a shudder. Neji broke his stance and sent Hinata sprawling with a hard strike. "As I said before, this was meant to happen. Concede."

From the tiles Hinata allowed the blood from her mouth to trickle to the floor. "N-no..."

Neji frowned.

"I meant… what I said before… I'll change… that… is my Way of the Ninja."

"Hinata..." Naruto watched with deep emotion.

Hinata charged once again.

"She can't use her chakra anymore with her tenketsu sealed. The only option she has is hard taijutsu..." Sasuke noted.

"Yeah," Kakashi said, "unfortunately, it's not likely the Hyuga have taught her any hard taijutsu beyond what's done in the academy."

Hinata's swings were large and forceful. Neji did not retaliate, but it looked to Sasuke like he was just waiting for a good strike.

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted when Neji caught Hinata in a viscous upward hit to the chin. Coughing, Hinata dove back in.

"She's like you, Naruto..." Sakura said, yet it was becoming harder and harder to watch.

Chakra bloomed forth from Neji's palm as he blasted Hinata for the third time in the chest. The sheer volume made Sasuke's spine chill. Blood burst from her mouth and she collapsed, unmoving.

"Your strikes were ineffective from the start. It's over." Neji let his Byakugan fade and walked towards the stairs. Across the stands each Konoha Shinobi looked on with a numb fear. Gaara clenched his crossed arms ever so slightly as he watched Neji.

The proctor began to raise his arm.

"Don't stop the match! Hinata, it's not over until you give in!"

"Naruto!" Sakura said incredulously. "Stop it! Hinata-chan's lost consciousness!"

" _Naruto you idiot!"_ Sasuke thought fiercely, _"if she takes another hit to her heart she'll die on the spot!"_

As Hinata began to stand up again against all odds, Sasuke's stone face broke to disbelief.

"I… I'm… far from finished!" she coughed. Hinata basked under Naruto's approving gaze.

"Hinata-sama… that's enough," Neji said quietly, "I can tell you're barely standing. You have shouldered the burden of being born into the Hyuga's Main Family… and also cursed yourself for not being strong enough to support it. But that is just the way things are. You do not need to suffer like this."

" _Did Itachi see the Uchiha this way?"_ Sasuke thought bitterly. _"Did he kill them because he hated what he saw when he looked at them, the way Neji looks at Hinata?"_

Hinata slowly shook her head at him. "You're wrong... Neji-niisan. Because _my_ eyes can see… that you are suffering much more than I."

"What...?" Neji's Byakugan reactivated.

"It is you… not me… who is mourning the fate of our family."

" _This girl's worth more than what her foolish clan thinks of her,"_ Sasuke thought with certainty. _"And Itachi, we Uchiha were worth more than whatever you thought of us!"_ His thoughts tumbled away as Neji finally lost his composure and dashed at Hinata, murder in his pale eyes. In a flash, Kakashi, Gai, Kurenai, and Hayate the proctor subdued him.

"Neji! We talked about this! Get a hold of yourself!" Gai hissed at his student.

"Why not just you?" Neji snarled under Gai's hold. "Does the Main Family get _special treatment?_ "

All attention diverted to Hinata as she spontaneously crumpled to the floor, vomiting blood. Kurenai rushed to her side. Sasuke found himself vaulting the railing alongside Naruto and Sakura despite the lead in his limbs.

"Hinata!" Naruto blurted as they crowded around her.

"Naruto...kun… _was I… able to change… just a little bit?"_ Hinata's fading sight caught Sakura's bright hair and Sasuke's smouldering red eyes. Her remaining thoughts grew less coherent. _"Sakura-chan never talked to me at the academy… but she looks worried… I should repay her trouble later… Ah… so that's the Sharingan… it's not as scary as I… expected..."_

Sasuke's Sharingan memorized the unsteady rise and fall of her chest. It saw her veins pulse with uneven flow. It saw the gurgling in her throat as it struggled to breathe through the blood. The blessed eyes ensured he would never forget.

"You there, the one called 'loser'," Neji spoke up. Naruto stood up from Hinata's body, blue eyes burning. "Do not get complacent. No matter what, people will stay the same. Stop encouraging others… their fates are sealed, and so is yours." Naruto growled and made to launch himself at Neji. Sasuke held back his collar.

"Now's not the time, Naruto. Not yet." Naruto turned back to his rival. His blue eyes met Sasuke's crimson gaze. In each set of eyes was a hardness, a dedication to the path of Shinobi. Wordlessly, Naruto understood what lay in Sasuke's Sharingan eyes. Even the fact that he was using it still, spoke all. Naruto backed down and Sasuke released his grasp.

"Yeah… I get it." Lee nodded in agreement nearby. Hinata sputtered, reddening her tan jacket.

"You're wasting time with me. I suggest you see to her." Neji smirked.

"Medics! Get over here already!" Kurenai shouted from Hinata's side.

Sasuke listened mutely as the medics hastily carted Hinata away. Naruto watched the medics and Hinata's body as he suddenly felt very afraid.

"Hurry—"

"This isn't good—"

"She's got maybe ten minutes—"

Sakura averted her gaze from the stretcher, distraught.

"Don't look away," Sasuke said to her under his breath. "Whether she lives or dies right now, she deserves dignity." Sakura sniffed, and nodded.

Naruto slowly lowered his hand to the arena floor, bathing it in Hinata's lost blood. He held the dripping fist out to Neji.

"I will win."

* * *

The village of Konoha was breezy. Leaves swirled softly in the wind as the hospital doors swished open. Naruto's blonde spikes rustled with the afternoon air.

"Eh~ I wonder why Sasuke can't have visitors?"

Sakura had some idea.

"Uh, well… there's a lot of foreign ninja in the village right now, and he's the last member of the Uchiha… I think it's for security." A generalization, but not untrue, she decided.

The remaining members of Team Seven walked down to Ichiraku Ramen, where Kakashi had agreed to meet up for the month-long period before the final Chunin exam. Naruto insisted this be the meeting place.

Of course, it was at least thirty minutes before Kakashi showed.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura both shouted as Kakashi rubbed his head.

"Aha… well, I had to bring my esteemed colleague here to assist in Naruto's training," he pointed a thumb behind him. A suspicious-looking character dressed in black appeared.

"Ah! It's the closet-pervert!"

"How rude," Ebisu-sensei nudged his glasses in distaste.

" _Closet… pervert?"_ Sakura eyed him uneasily.

"Oh, you two are acquainted? How nice," Kakashi said easily.

"You want _him_ to train me? How can he train me after I beat him so easily with my Har—" Ebisu appeared behind Naruto, covering his mouth.

"...Naruto-kun! If you agree to keep quiet about that incident I'll buy you all the ramen here you want today, how about it," Ebisu pressured under his breath.

"Okay, okay!" Naruto's muffled voice issued less quietly. Ebisu released his hand, ruffling Naruto's head.

"Haha! Yes, Naruto-kun and I had a little bout at one point! Why, I found myself blown away by his ability!" Ebisu-sensei said loudly. Sakura's continued look of suspicion looked remarkably like Naruto's irritated face.

"But Kakashi-sensei, you're saying you want him to teach me? I want _you_ to teach me!"

"Um, sensei… do you also want _me_ to train with him?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Nope, just Naruto, although… I'm afraid I won't be able to give my full attention to you either, Sakura."

"Hey, don't tell me… you're gonna train Sasuke!" Naruto stamped a foot.

"Is… that true, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura had been looking forward to hearing what Kakashi thought of her earth jutsu.

"Well…" Kakashi thumbed his chin. "The thing is, Gaara isn't an opponent that _any_ genin should be able to beat. I think I know a way that Sasuke can do it, but it's something that will take a very large amount of time and effort from him, maybe more than we have. For one, he'll need to be able to use his Sharingan better, and unfortunately I'm the only one who can teach that and a special technique to use with it to him."

Naruto looked especially put out by the "special technique". Sakura glanced at him worriedly, remembering the promise he'd made to defeat Neji.

"Sakura, I'll be able to work with you today until Sasuke leaves the hospital tomorrow, but after then I'll leave you with some training routines that will work to your strengths. Ebisu-sensei here can watch over this while he trains Naruto," Kakashi held up some scrolls. "As for you, Naruto, there are still some important basic abilities that you need to work on. Ebisu-sensei here is a teacher who earned his jounin status as a private instructor. He's very good at what he does and he'll get you as ready for your match as I could. Naruto just scowled and folded his arms.

"But I still won't get to do any new jutsu, will I?"

"Naruto," Sakura cupped her hand near him. "I want to train with Kakashi-sensei too, but remember the hospital? I think sensei wants to be on hand so... someone doesn't come after Sasuke. He said the you need to master more basics, I think he means your chakra control. Listen Naruto, I think you have a lot more chakra than me or Sasuke-kun, but you can't use it properly… think about how much stronger you'd be if you could control it?" Sakura's whispering sounded conspiratorial. Naruto grinned lightly at his teammate.

"I guess you have a point, Sakura-chan. I'll blow through any training this guy can give me, then I'm coming for Neji's ass!" Sakura smiled at him, making him blush and hurriedly drag Ebisu-sensei away.

"Hold on, Naruto-kun! You don't even know where we'll be training…!" His voiced faded with the wind. Sakura sighed and hoped Naruto would be alright with this.

" _Well, Sakura's quickly learning how to manipulate her teammates. That worries me somewhat,"_ Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Well, Sakura-chan, I think you're smart enough to not get caught by Kankuro's tricks easily, but you'll still need the strength to last it out. Don't take him lightly."

Sakura remembered the Sand ninja's puppets. She definitely didn't plan to take him lightly.

* * *

Though Sakura had only trained with Kakashi for half the previous day, she hadn't felt this sore in the morning since the training in the Land of Waves.

"Are you using Kage Bunshin while you're here with me, Ebisu-sensei?" she asked.

"Hmm, very astute of you, Sakura-kun," Ebisu replied, "however that is not the case. I am all of me today. Naruto-kun had a spot of good fortune, and during training yesterday we stumbled upon another teacher who is even stronger than Kakashi-sensei and can train Naruto much differently than I. It is a fantastic opportunity for him, so you will probably be the only one I'll be teaching for now."

" _Stronger than Kakashi-sensei? Who could that possibly be?"_ Sakura wondered, but if that was true, Naruto must be ecstatic. She smiled at the thought.

"Now, Sakura-kun. Kakashi told me what he had in mind, but I'd like to go over what your training yesterday entailed." Ebisu spread his arms, awaiting her words. Sakura decided she liked him despite Naruto's strange comments. His manner reminded her of the teachers at the academy.

"Yes. Chakra is composed of both physical energy and spiritual energy. Kakashi-sensei says my spiritual energy will increase the more ninjutsu I do, but my physical energy isn't as high and limits the amount of chakra I have. So that I can use my elemental jutsu better, I will be training entirely in increasing my stamina, or my physical energy in other words."

"Good, good," Ebisu adjusted his glasses. "Kakashi instructed me not to be easy with you. You would normally find that these endurance exercises become easier with time, but we will be constantly increasing the intensity so that doesn't happen. Are you ready to begin?"

Sakura remembered Sasuke's harsh words before this exam began. She remembered the incredible fear against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. She remembered Ino and how much Sakura wanted her friend back. She remembered Naruto's relentless assault on Kiba and his refusal to give in. She remembered Hinata's blood. She remembered how far Lee had gone to prove his worth, only to lose everything against Gaara.

"I'm ready."

* * *

Kakashi rested against a tree as he languidly skimmed through the new volume in the renowned Icha Icha series. He quietly pocketed the flier for the upcoming film adaptation.

"Ah… Mika-chan will come around, I think..." Kakashi chuckled to himself. He heard a soft _tok_ on the branches above him. "I was just thinking that perhaps I should come get you, but it looks like you found me first." Kakashi closed his book. "We'd better get started."

Sasuke smirked.

* * *

"Ha!"

"On the right!"

"Hey, no fair!"

Jiraiya tuned out the yelps and grunts of many Narutos as the kid tussled with his shadow clones to eliminate his normal chakra reserves.

" _Trust me kid, if you can someday manage to use the Rasengan you won't need to learn more chakra control. That massive well of chakra you've got courtesy of the nine-tailed fox is already enough to outlast any opponent… even another jinchuriki. Damned Orochimaru… I got rid of his seal blocking Naruto's chakra flow but just what is he up to? We know he's back in Konoha. I'd better stick around, there's a bad vibe."_

Jiraiya's giggles as he closely watched some girls playing in the water masked the intuitive mind of the one Shinobi whom had completed more missions than any other.

* * *

 **And there you have it, folks. A lot of people wanted to see Hinata, and here she is! If you guys think this chapter, or the last one for that matter, is rather dark, well… this is pretty much how it actually is in canon, keep that in mind. I'll really start to focus on her in another chapter or two, so try to hold out until then; she's still in the hospital, after all. Remember, the "for want of a nail" still hasn't had time to grow. What in the story was different about Hinata's fight, and why did it happen? Well, I'm sure you guys can figure it out.**

 **On that note I want to highlight the idea that not much has changed from the series. Well, next chapter 'the big one' is coming. This will be a crucial, _crucial_ step of everything going off the rails, and there will be severe consequences for both Sakura and Hinata, though it will happen with Sakura first. I've made one or two allusions to Sakura's big change, do you guys know what it will be? I might have 'told' it too obviously already in a previous chapter. As for Hinata… you'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Iggy**


	4. Sprout

The buzzing of fluorescent lights coursed softly through the underground chamber. Clinks of bottles and metallic instruments and the bubbling of tanks filling with fluid formed a chilling cacophony of sinister potential somewhere within Konoha's bowels.

"Move that table a bit to the left… excellent, Kabuto," Orochimaru pointed to a tilting metallic sheet laden with bindings as he busily organized surgical tools. "We'll have to set it up inside one of the tanks, a troublesome maneuver."

Kabuto pushed the table to the tank undergoing a cleansing cycle. "I find it surprising that Konoha was unable to locate all of your hidden facilities that remain in the village somewhere, Orochimaru-sama."

"I hadn't expected to use this one again even if it survived," he replied truthfully. "I took some extra measures in this case. Deceiving the Hyuga's Byakugan is no simple feat," Orochimaru grinned nastily. "The barrier seals proved costly, however, and I wasn't able to adorn more than one laboratory here with them. We should be thankful for this opportunity, Kabuto."

"If I may… you still haven't informed me what we'll be doing tonight, Orochimaru-sama. I was under the impression that preparations for the invasion were finalized." The nauseous light glinted off of Kabuto's polished glasses.

"Indeed, everything is on track for the invasion. This is but a… curiosity of mine, and as you know I am a _very_ curious man." Orochimaru folded up some linens and glanced at paper reporting the pH and composition of the fluid in the tank. "You've been in Konoha long enough, Kabuto… what do you know about the First Hokage?"

"Shodaime-sama? Of course, he was well known as the 'God of Shinobi', but I imagine you're referring more to his abilities?"

"Then I'm sure you already know… Shodaime-sama was famous for his Wood Style ninjutsu. He is said to have created the structure of the Leaf using it. Since his death, there have been no known users of Wood Style… Or at least, that _would_ be true."

"Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto watched as Orochimaru called some snakes to lift the table gently into the tank.

"When Sarutobi-sensei caught wind of my activities I happened to be in the final stages of an experiment to implant infants with Shodaime-sama's Wood Style kekkei genkai."

"I see, sir. Then, your experiments were successful at producing new users of Wood Style?"

"You see, Kabuto, I developed two versions of this implant. The first was directly grafting large quantities of tissue formed from cultivated cells of Shodaime-sama. This turned out to be quite simple, though unsightly, unrefined, and not as effective as I'd hoped. Often, the tissue does not cooperate with the host, making the Wood Style even more difficult to use than expected. Still, I had one associate here who agreed to receive this version of the procedure."

"An associate, sir?"

"Someone who know doubt wishes to control the nine-tails. Two kekkei genkai within Konoha were noted to have unusual control over Tailed Beasts. The First Hokage was one such individual said to hold that power." Orochimaru chuckled at the notion of such an ambition.

"Then I suppose the other is the Sharingan," Kabuto said astutely.

"Very good, Kabuto. Of course, no Uchiha in living memory has had that capability… perhaps, anyway," Orochimaru said thoughtfully. "Certainly the entire Nine-Tails incident remains highly suspicious, wouldn't you say?"

"As you say, sir. So then, you developed a second method of implanting the Wood Style?"

"Efforts to improve the process were almost completely unsuccessful. As you know, it is relatively easy to transplant dojutsu such as Sharingan or Byakugan. A nature transformation ability is, unfortunately, rooted far and wide across the being of the kekkei genkai holder. It took me quite awhile to isolate it in the First Hokage's cells. Even then, I trialed implants using the isolated element in one hundred infants before I was caught, and only one was successful… all others died."

"Then, that one survivor… is now a Shinobi of Konoha? I do not know this individual."

"Do not doubt your spying abilities, Kabuto. I suspect this particular Shinobi has been brought up deep within ANBU. Konoha has taken great trouble to hide such a valuable asset. Amusing, really, after the lengths they took to drive me out for attempting it..." Orochimaru chuckled again as he wrote some notes in a scroll.

"Still, this method, you were able to impart the infant's cells with the isolated quality of Wood Style?"

"It would seem so, Kabuto. I did not have enough time here in the village back then, but after later examining the research I found that compatibility with the Wood Style is very important within the subject's genetics and was a main factor in the large quantity of failures to the project."

"Then you must mean their original chakra nature, or perhaps their relation to the Senju Clan, the only known users of Wood Style?"

"Quite, Kabuto. Wood Style is a special nature transformation that combines water and earth chakra. Naturally, individuals who are strong in these natures are the ones most suited to the procedure. Chakra nature is difficult to determine in infants which is one reason my previous experiments were failures. As for the Senju, after the formation of Konoha the Senju spread their branches all across Konoha shinobi. They disseminated as a clan and their 'thousand skills' now reside in almost all Konoha shinobi in some form. Their only strong descendant now is Tsunade-hime, who, to my knowledge, has no children. Even then, Tsunade does not possess the chakra affinity that would be ideal for an implant. We are here today, however, because in our time here you have encountered someone who _is_ ideal."

Kabuto accepted the scroll that Orochimaru handed him. "Water and earth transformations… You must mean Team Seven's straggler."

"Most would not give a second look at the stray Genin of a team containing the last of the Uchiha and the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails headed by the strongest ninja at Konoha's disposal. Yet, Sakura-chan has demonstrated strong affinities in both water and earth. Her remarkable chakra control also means that she has a high chance of using Wood Style without losing control over it, though she'll need to raise her stamina far more to make good use of it. Her lack of clan ancestry solidifies our experiment. Bloodlines among clans don't mix commonly, usually when there are two kekkei genkai one takes precedence over the other."

"I see. Sakura-kun's family has no trace of kekkei genkai, so there shouldn't be interference from her body."

"Now then Kabuto…" Orochimaru clapped his hands gleefully, "our preparations are nearly complete. If you would, please scout Sakura-chan's current location and status. I'll join you soon." Orochimaru swirled his chakra-enhanced tongue in excitement while Kabuto obeyed and made his way to the surface of Konoha.

* * *

A ferric taste permeated Sakura's throat as she climbed brokenly to her feet. The log she had been dragging lay next to her, a modest trough of landscape carved underneath it. Subsequent trails formed over the last few weeks ran adjacent to it over the range of the large field she'd trained in. The sun dipped low over the horizon, distorting the light to a simmering orange. Following the trail of the sun, Sakura lumbered back towards the village proper.

The late autumn wind cast a festive smell that Sakura could not feel while breathing heavily through her mouth. The weights chafed uncomfortably around her arms and legs, but she'd been ordered not to remove them.

 _Maybe I should wear something underneath so that the weights feel better… Then again, there's less than a week before the finals, I could manage._ Children raced one another holding pinwheels and lugging kites, eager to test the wind before their mothers recalled them for dinner. Sakura smiled, wondering how many of them would one day be doing what she was now. Her childhood had been unpleasant before she'd met Ino, but still she found herself looking back on it enviously. At least her childhood hadn't involved training to the bone for death matches.

Her skeleton ached dearly, but she could at least look forward to her mother's dinner at home and her father's wisecracks. Through the throbbing of her weighted arms and legs she wondered how the boys were doing. _Kankuro looked very capable in the prelims, but compared to people like Neji and Gaara… I think I got off easy compared to Naruto and Sasuke._ Sakura couldn't suppress a shudder as she remembered how Hinata had clutched at her chest the first time Neji had hit her and how Lee's arm and leg had crunched sickeningly beneath Gaara's sand. _Kakashi-sensei said he knew a way Sasuke could beat Gaara. I have to trust that he knows what he's doing. As for Naruto, I know how much he wants to beat Neji for what he did to Hinata, but that kind of strength seemed so… unfair! Naruto likes to fight at close range… What is he supposed to do when Neji just seals all his chakra?_ Sakura shook her head, though winced as it induced a headache. _No! Naruto may be clueless in school, but was so_ tricky _the way he fought Kiba. Naruto can do it… he can find some way to catch Neji off guard… I hope._

As Sakura then pondered about what she could do to fight against Kakuro's puppets, she remained oblivious to the shadow that slid across Konoha's rooftops with the setting sun. A second presence appeared beside the shadow.

"What do you make of it, Kabuto?"

"She's completely exhausted from her stamina training. I expect we'll have no trouble catching her, although we should do it now; she's almost home." The two cloaked figures flitted around civilian and Shinobi eyes alike as easily as water slipped through gravel.

"That will save us the trouble of draining her chakra for the procedure. Very well, Kabuto, conceal the crossroads." Orochimaru vanished in a swirl of leaves as he began bathing Sakura's path with chakra. Kabuto zipped away to coat the nearby roads with genjutsu that would obscure sight and sound from any who might pass by.

The familiarity of the way home did not aid Sakura in noticing that anything was amiss. Her stomach growled low as it wondered what her mother would have for dinner, she was starving.

Something flicked in the corner of Sakura's eye. The air around her began to darken. _Huh? What happened to the streetlamps? Did one run out?_ She turned her neck, and saw another two lamps directly behind her smoothly dim to black. Startled, she looked in front of her, but the lamps ahead had already been extinguished while she'd had her eyes off them. _An ambush_ _!_ but before she could so much as brandish a kunai Orochimaru appeared out of thick, chakra-laden air, which pressed itself against her brain, forcing her to slumber before his glinting eyes.

* * *

"Change her into this gown, Kabuto." Orochimaru held up something resembling a hospital smock. "We'll need to use chakra to access her cells with as little interference as possible." Kabuto took the gown and obeyed, pointedly looking at Sakura's face. He lowered her limp body carefully into the tank, attaching her limbs securely in the process. Kabuto pulled out the scroll he'd been given earlier and laid it out on a bench.

"We are ready to begin, Orochimaru-sama."

"Good. The first step will be a chakra decontamination procedure. Do you recall the technique?"

"Yes sir. The purpose of it is to remove all foreign DNA so that it doesn't interfere with an alteration procedure."

"Remember that different areas of her body will require varying degrees of chakra saturation. We will begin from the feet." Orochimaru and Kabuto both formed the Ram Seal. From the bottom of the tank, chakra surged through the liquid, coating Sakura's exposed feet. Had she been awake, she would have managed to feel the burning and stinging as the chakra eroded away any plant and animal matter.

After nearly a half an hour of slow screening from Orochimaru and Kabuto's chakra, the process reached Sakura's torso. A bright red chakra burn appeared along her waist through the ties in the gown, making Sakura jolt unconsciously.

"Careful, Kabuto, this is where it gets tricky." Kabuto clenched his fingers and increased his control.

Two hours later the visible skin on Sakura's body was red with rash and burns, but the process was complete.

"That will do, Kabuto. It was messy, but it's better to go overboard than do too little. When the DNA augmentation occurs, any lingering plants, bacteria and so forth could bring… unintended side effects," Orochimaru said clinically. "Get the scroll ready. Follow the sealing formula to impart the contents along Sakura-chan's body." Kabuto pulled the table with the scroll into view, looking at the chakra distribution along the graphic of a human body it contained. "Again, start from the feet. This will take awhile." Kabuto obeyed and directed his chakra between the scroll and the tank, following Orochimaru's lead.

Inky swirls wound their way around Sakura's feet. They twitched and glowed bright at every turn, each sequence unsealing chain after chain of microscopic proteins. Kabuto and Orochimaru bathed the tank in chakra, allowing the product to saturate the liquid until they were sequentially chosen to replace torn out sections of Sakura's cells.

"The number of cells in the body is greater than we can imagine, Kabuto. The seal is specially coded to replace her body's structure with our cultivated product on a large scale, but the process will need time to hit every single cell."

As the sensation of countless needles approached Sakura's shins, her consciousness rippled beneath the haze of genjutsu, shattering it in one sudden motion. She screamed.

"Kabuto, hood!" Orochimaru barked. Kabuto immediately flipped his hood, concealing his Sound headband and distinctive light hair. He knew that his cover was not long from being blown, but he must draw out his discovery as a spy in Konoha as long as possible.

"To think she is a genjutsu-type as well!" Orochimaru cackled. "So many hidden talents across the lands… I can't wait to discover them all!"

"We should have known… chakra control and a learned mind make for genjutsu..." Kabuto muttered beneath his cloak.

"Bind her limbs—" Kabuto threaded chakra through the conductive metal wraps on the table, "-good. Do not worry, my friend, she's no longer in any position to stop us. I'm sure her genjutsu will only add yet another interesting layer to her future."

* * *

Sakura yelped through the breathing apparatus while the sensation of needles piercing her stomach crawled through her flesh.

 _I can't feel my legs…_

She struggled against the cold metal restraints around her limbs. Her bones rubbed painfully against their surfaces. Her brain plummeted through a confusing memory, trying to make out what was going on. A single, pasty white face came to her.

 _Orochimaru… I saw him in front of me…_

Sakura wrenched her eyes open, then shut them immediately as the liquid stung her sockets. As pain crept up her spine, she tried again. Through a cloudy vision she spotted conjoined blobs of long dark hair and pale frame. A dark-robed figure she couldn't make out was next to him, but that mattered less to her.

 _What is he doing…? Ah! It hurts!_ Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as both their burning and the needles of chakra drove her far outside her comfort zone. She struggled again to free herself, desperate to end the pain and get away.

How long she continued to wrench her aching limbs away, she did not know. Each second felt longer than the last, yet her count of them had long since broken away from her. The chafing of the metal cuffs helped distract her from the numbness in her feet and the feel of chakra sewing itself through her skin as Orochimaru's dark energy continued further up her body.

Sakura's stomach heaved, trying to regurgitate its nonexistent contents. For the moment, she was grateful for how badly she'd needed to eat before. She dimly attempted to recall some of the lessons at the academy that she'd started reminding herself about more and more often recently.

" _The first step to resisting torture is to empty the mind of thoughts. Vacate. Meditate. Focus only on breathing, in and out."_

Sakura focused in inhaling and exhaling. She began to feel out her chakra instinctively, and within it was something new. Unfamiliar. Foreign.

" _If you must think, remember that you are not at fault. Know your enemy, understand what makes them the enemy."_

 _Orochimaru is one of the Legendary Three Ninja of Konoha. He was the student of Sandaime-sama, along with Jiraiya-sama the Sage, and Tsunade-sama the Medic. Each of them has an affinity in Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Orochimaru's specialty is snakes. They are all S-class shinobi, as powerful as the Five Kage._

The suddenly intense prickling in her neck halted Sakura's recitation, but only for a moment.

 _Unlike the other two, Orochimaru is a rogue ninja. He is a top-ranked criminal in the bingo book, wanted for countless murders, kidnappings, and war crimes against his own country. If encountered in the field, he is strictly not to be engaged, but notification is to be sent to Konoha immediately, who will then determine what course of action, if any, can be taken against him._

Sakura knew that this complex apparatus that Orochimaru had gone through the trouble of putting her in was not meant as torture. While he clearly didn't care how much pain she felt in the process, there was something he was trying to do with her. Something that he only saw fit for _her_.

 _Orochimaru is a twisted researcher of ninjutsu. The majority of his crimes are related to unethical experimentation that has resulted in the loss of an estimated hundreds of innocent lives._

So, why her? Why not Sasuke, or…

Why would Naruto be a part of that consideration? What was unique about him?

 _Somehow… I know… I can feel something strange about Naruto… The amount of chakra he has… those sudden bursts of anger… How he can go from harmless to a total rampage through the enemy ranks. Something is there… something special…_

Spots of white flashed through her eyes as chakra began to impale her skull. The intensity of the flare broke her out of her concentration.

 _Sasuke-kun… Naruto… someone please find me!_

 _Kakashi-sensei… Mom, Dad… Anyone…_

All at once, the pain stopped.

Sakura wheezed, exhausted, for a few minutes as she waited to see if anything would happen. She carefully eased her eyes open again. Through the haze of the tank, she saw Orochimaru's black and white figure arrange and lay out various scrolls before him. He pointed around for the hooded man to bring him more scrolls and other objects she couldn't see from around the room. As Sakura shut her throbbing eyes again, she examined her chakra.

 _Something's wrong… It's like my chakra isn't my chakra anymore. What is he doing to me?_

Sakura followed the unfamiliar chakra outside the tank, and felt the pressure as Orochimaru and the other figure amassed a huge volume of chakra around their system of scrolls.

The tank surged with the power injected through the tubes, blanketing her senses.

Immediately, Sakura began to scream through her face piece.

Knives now covered every inch of her skin. Head to toe, the chakra burned, searing away all sensation, all thought, all emotion. White hot pain caused her body to twist and undulate, the resulting tearing and bruising of her muscle and bone unnoticeable beneath the veneer of chakra being forcibly inserted into her very cells.

Sakura held on for mere minutes before the pain and her uncontrolled breath drove her utterly out of sight and mind.

* * *

"It seems she's passed out from the pain through hyperventilation, sir," Kabuto panted, winded from the chakra he'd expended. Orochimaru looked no worse for wear.

"That was all but expected at this stage. Keep going, we'll need another twenty minutes for this cycle, at least." Kabuto obeyed, the chakra in the tank gaining some visibility from the strength.

When Orochimaru signaled to stop, Kabuto dropped down on a knee in fatigue.

"This strain on your reserves might be good for you, Kabuto," Orochimaru chuckled. "We'll rest for the next thirty minutes while the chakra exits her system. As we do, a little of it shall remain in her cell structure, imbuing it with that of Senju Hashirama. Once we're ready, we'll repeat this process several times, and the residual power of the Wood Style will continue to embed itself. At your leisure, prepare an IV for her just in case."

"Yes sir," Kabuto said, fingering his soldier pills.

True to his word, the tank soon was once again flooded with chakra containing that of Shodaime-sama. Sakura's screams ignited anew, confusion and pain eventually returning her to slumber. Kabuto and Orochimaru rested, then repeated. For hours and hours, saturate Sakura's body with more chakra than she'd ever used in her life they did. Each time, Sakura awoke, and each time she grew a little more accustomed to the pain. But her strength could not last, and with no sleep or food over nearly a day she would not re-awaken by the final treatment, when Orochimaru declared their work complete.

"Give her a mild chakra stimulant to facilitate her recovery. We'll want to see her back on her feet soon," Orochimaru told Kabuto, who popped a soldier pill and injected Sakura with a small yellow syringe.

With Sakura's fragile body in his arms, Orochimaru carefully emerged back above ground in the village, Kabuto trailing him. Sunlight poked through the trees of Orochimaru's old home, reminding his days as a genin, training from early hours while his teammates slept in.

 _Just like then, this will be a day of new beginnings,_ he thought to himself as he lay Sakura in one of the training grounds near the village outskirts. Kabuto watched as Orochimaru formed a Seal of the Ram and sent a small jolt of chakra through Sakura's withered form. To his glee, tiny sprouts grew from the ground around her skin, threading through her fingertips, cradling their new magister.

"It seems we have been successful, Kabuto. Can you confirm her vitals?"

"Yes sir, she will be entirely stable by the time village security finds her."

"Very good. Rest now, Kabuto, you will need to be at full strength for the invasion."

"Of course."

As silent as snakes in the grass, Orochimaru and Kabuto disappeared.

 _I look forward to hearing stories of your exploits, Sakura-chan…_

* * *

 **A shorter chapter, but I couldn't really start the next scene without leaving it prematurely, and I really need to get this one out. It was pretty obvious that this was going to happen, what do you all think of this? This was the main change I really wanted to write, and from now on a lot of familiar aspects of the story are going to be affected, even Hinata, which I might even be able to get to next chapter. I'm trying to motivate myself to doing further work in the things that are important to me, such as this, so I'm going to get started on more chapters now.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Iggy**


	5. Flame

Naruto tentatively walked along, carefully placing one foot in front of the other on his path through the suburbs of Konoha. His strange tension drew curious glances, as the sight of Naruto not going about his path with either gusto or in a depressive sulk was unusual. The gazes were better than he remembered, but none still did more than give a side glance, perhaps in fear of any range of devious pranks to outright demonic possession. For once, Naruto paid them little heed. He'd been tasked with an important mission. One which he'd never expected, one which he was in no way prepared for. The most difficult mission his adolescent mind could possibly imagine.

He was supposed to tell Sakura-chan how he felt.

Well, ero-sennin had told him that. The only thing he kind of understood was that he was supposed to put his life on the line. Why ero-sennin thought that laying it all out to Sakura-chan was something he had to accomplish right before death, Naruto could only fancifully guess.

 _I bet that geezer's remembering the hundreds—no, thousands of women who all rejected him in his long and miserable life! Maybe he thinks I can do the things he couldn't! I'll succeed in his place! It's okay, ero-sennin, I get how you feel…_ Naruto snickered to himself, causing a passing mother to hastily usher her young daughter down another path.

He let himself feel the breeze in the stead of the villagers, who were obviously too suspicious to enjoy life. Well, it wasn't like he came to the suburbs often, his apartment was rather further in the village center so these people probably only knew him by gossip. He wasn't really too keen on seeing Sakura's parents either, but it had been years now since he'd seen Mebuki Haruno tugging a cute pink-haired girl away from the playground when she'd caught sight of him. If she'd raised a fuss when Sakura was put on his team, Naruto figured he'd have at least heard some irritated remark from the girl herself. Things could be different now. A quick visit and inquiry to see if Sakura was home was worth a try, Naruto decided.

Naruto looked up at the innocuous place he'd seen Ino waiting at in the early years of the academy. People knocked when they visited someone's home, didn't they? Did they knock softly or bang the door to be heard? He raised his knuckles, and halted. What should he tell them? 'Hello I'm here to confess my love to your daughter before I go off to train myself to death'? He stood there with his forehead scrunched for awhile.

 _Maybe Sakura-chan will get the door,_ Naruto thought, seemingly finding the answer to his great, most important mission. He rapped on the door, then held his breath as if he were preparing chakra for some great jutsu with a super-long name.

Regrettably, it was Mebuki who answered the door. The blonde woman peered down at the second blonde head and her fierce green eyes narrowed a fraction. Naruto screwed in his sunniest smile.

" _Ya~_ um… _Haruno_ -obasan!" Naruto widened his blue eyes innocently and raised a hand in greeting. "I was wonderin' if Sakura-chan was around! I, uh… Wanted to talk about the exams with her!"

Mebuki Haruno paused poignantly. She stepped outside and closed the door.

"Well… _Naruto-kun_ , I'm afraid she never came home from training last night, and here I thought I told that girl _not_ to train overnight without telling us." Mebuki replied rather cordially, but she drummed her fingers against her arm with concern.

Something gnawed Naruto at her words.

"Well I know Sakura-chan doesn't wanna lose to anyone next week!" Naruto thumped his chest for emphasis. "Still, it doesn't seem like her to make people worry..." He thumbed his chin. "Can you tell me which grounds she's training at, Haruno-obasan?"

"Thirteen," she said, fidgeting in a way that suddenly reminded Naruto of her daughter. She looked like she wanted to say something, but Naruto overrode her.

"How 'bout this, I'll haul it over to Grounds Thirteen, and when I find her I'll use my awesome shadow clones to come tell you!" He crossed his fingers in demonstration but did not make a clone.

"I… would appreciate that a lot, Naruto-kun," her eyes softened gratefully.

"Yes'm!" Naruto jumped to the rooftops immediately, and despite his enthusiasm some primal, instinctive fear began clawing up his spine.

* * *

"This is highly irregular..." Ebisu muttered to himself. He pulled out a scroll and wrote a message in ink before activating a seal. The characters wriggled and vanished. Ebisu returned the scroll to his pouch and folded his arms.

"Oi! Closet-pervert!" An object in the distance of road cone orange bellowed to him. Ebisu spared Naruto disciplinary action in light of the situation.

"Naruto-kun, you wouldn't happen to know where Sakura-kun is today?" Ebisu said seriously.

"Whaddya mean? I came here because she wasn't home!" Naruto stamped a foot. Ebisu hastily pulled out the scroll again and sent off a quick note.

"Naruto-kun, I must speak with Sakura-kun's parents and ensure I have all the information. Kakashi-sensei will meet us at her home. It is not like Sakura-chan to be so absent, there may be something wrong." Ebisu signaled Naruto to follow him back towards the village rooftops.

Kakashi was already speaking to Mebuki at the front door. As Naruto and Ebisu approached they caught wind of some of their discussion.

"...I'm afraid that given the foreign presence in the village this may be a situation like we discussed during Team Seven's approval," Kakashi was saying.

"I see… given who her teammates are..." Mebuki nibbled her knuckle in agitation.

"She may be targeted by association, yes, but let's not make that conclusion yet." Kakashi turned to Ebisu and Naruto as they descended. "We'll have to sweep the village."

"I shall call the ANBU patrols." Ebisu raised a hand, but Kakashi stopped him with his own.

"There may be a better way. Naruto," Kakashi looked down at his student. "We must find her. Can you do it with three-hundred?"

"I've never made that many before, but I'll do it anyway!" He crossed his fingers.

"Send your clones out in pairs. From here, cover all directions in a straight line. Leave one clone here with us. If you find her or anything else you think you should report, dispel only _one_ of the clones in that pair," Kakashi ordered. "Understand?"

"I think so..." Great clouds of smoke swirled about them as waves of Narutos criss-crossed the cityscape. Afterward, Naruto sat on his knees, panting. Kakashi bent down towards him.

"I haven't told you about this yet, Naruto, but being on Team Seven could make things dangerous for Sakura." Naruto looked up at him. "As you and Sasuke make your way through the ninja world, there will undoubtedly be enemies who want to take each of your… special abilities for themselves. That could cause them to target Sakura, who doesn't have such unique characteristics, in hopes of finding a way to get to you two. Part of why you were placed together was for mutual protection. Not only are threats easier to manage when they're not spread apart, but it is hoped that working together will also jointly strengthen you against them, as a team." Naruto stared hard into the ground.

"Hokage-jichan decided that? To leave Sakura-chan hanging out to dry?" he growled, fist pawing at the dirt. A soft hand lay itself on his shoulder.

"If anyone attacks you, or Sakura, it's their fault. And theirs alone, Naruto-kun," Mebuki told him firmly. Naruto appeared astonished.

"But… Sasuke I think I get, but everyone hates this… this _thing."_ Naruto clutched at his stomach. "Why would someone _want_ it?" Mebuki frowned uneasily, not answering.

"No one has ever been able to control its power, no matter how hard they've tried, Naruto," Kakashi said. "But the Fourth Hokage believed you would be different, that one day it's power would be the same as yours."

"Why me…?" Naruto muttered. Then his head jerked up. "I found her!" Mebuki gasped, composure faltering. Naruto crossed his arms as he sorted through the information the clone brought. "She's at grounds twenty-two… She looks okay—" Mebuki hastily wiped her eyes— "clear vitals, couldn't see any injuries on her at all, but she's definitely out cold, didn't even twitch when I yelled that Sasuke was takin' his shirt off. Something else weird though… she's wearin' some kinda gown, like the doctors give you, and her clothes and equipment are all folded next to her. That doesn't seem like an attack, y'know?"

Possibilities strung through Kakashi's mind, each slowly converging on one man before all others. _Please, not again…_ he thought. "Take her to the hospital, Naruto." Naruto canceled the clone next to him, sending the order back to the remaining clone. The other clones around the village dismissed themselves. Kakashi turned to Ebisu. "Could you go to our training grounds and have Sasuke meet us at the hospital?"

"Of course, Kakashi-san." He went without another word.

"Haruno-san, of course, you may accompany us to the hospital. If you tell me where your husband is, I can inform him as well." Kakashi nodded at Mebuki.

"He should be working through his orders at the storehouse, weapon sealing department," she replied as Naruto got to his feet.

* * *

"Hokage-jichan!" Naruto blurted as the man in white robes entered the waiting room beyond which Sakura was being examined.

"Naruto, Kakashi informs me that you found Sakura and brought her in. Good work," he nodded.

"Why'd you come here?"

"Because the situation remains unclear. Certainly, this incident seems unusual, wouldn't you say, Naruto?" The Hokage had a glint in his eye.

Naruto went back to pacing until a short while when the medic returned. Sasuke uncrossed his arms from where he'd been leaning against the wall as the medic approached the Hokage and Kakashi. Mebuki and Kizashi stood up from the bench.

"As had been indicated, her physical condition seems fine. As far as we can tell, she merely has an advanced case of chakra exhaustion," the medic began. Mebuki unclenched her frozen hands while Kizashi patted her on the shoulder. "Given her profile and background, however, she shouldn't have been capable of such prolonged chakra depletion on her own." The medic flipped a page on his clipboard. "On that note, the chakra that does remain does not seem to properly match her last evaluation. Somehow, it's different than before, and we're still trying to isolate this quality. Lastly, her brain activity is subdued, and is probably why she's unconscious. We don't have a clear cause for that either, since she shows no head trauma. It is my opinion that we won't be able determine much more until she wakes up on her own."

The Hokage thanked the medic for his report. Before anyone could offer further commentary, the door opened.

"Ah, Inoichi, excellent timing," the Hokage waved at the special investigator of the Konoha Intelligence Division. A bright blonde head next to him caught his eye. "And young Ino as well..."

"Er—my apologies, Hokage-sama, in my haste I seem to have allowed my daughter to tag along..." Inoichi rubbed his head.

"All's well, Inoichi, in fact, she may have become useful to the situation here..." Ino glanced around at the room's inhabitants curiously. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Sasuke, but she was halted from action as the Hokage spoke again. "Inoichi, reasons unknown have put Sakura Haruno unconscious in the hospital, yet she does not have a scratch. I have asked you here to try and look into her mind so that we may find out what happened."

"Sakura…?" Ino whispered in horror, bright green eyes watching the medic lead the Hokage, Kakashi, and her father into the exam room.

Minutes ticked by on the clock. Ino chose to sit down next to Sakura's parents, grabbing Mebuki's hand. Naruto resumed his pacing and Sasuke returned to his corner, looking surly.

Jolts resounded from each person as Sakura's acute screams suddenly arouse.

"She's using too much chakra! She'll be completely dry at this rate!" the muffled voice of the medic was heard through the door, a loud _thunk_ next to the bench echoed as a modestly leafy potted plant twisted and shot up towards the ceiling, falling under the weight. Wooden vines wriggled around Ino's and the Haruno's feet, but shuddered to an end at the same time as Sakura's screams did. Footsteps grew behind the door as everyone in the room began to crowd in front of it.

Kakashi swiftly held up a hand as cacophonous exclamations began. "She's okay, I had to subdue her with my Sharingan. She woke up agitated mid-way through Inoichi's technique, and her chakra was running wild. She would have died of depletion in moments." He led everyone back towards the bench. The Hokage emerged with Inoichi in tow. Ino jumped up.

"Papa! I f-forgot to tell you… In the exams, she resisted my technique—"

"It's okay, Ino, we found what we needed before she pushed me out," he placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "But from now on, I want you to be there for your friend; none of that silly rivalry you were doing before..."

"What are you… what do you mean—" Kakashi cleared his throat. He turned to Mebuki and Kizashi, the latter of whom steadied his wife's shoulders.

"On her way home last night, Sakura was abducted by the rogue ninja, Orochimaru of the legendary Sannin," he said solemnly. Mebuki furiously stifled tears as she swayed in Kizashi's arms. "Over the course of the entire night, he performed a procedure on her to implant the kekkei genkai of the First Hokage into her cells; the Wood Style. He did not do so gently. Inoichi's examination was able to reveal that Sakura employed techniques she learned in the academy to resist torture." Kakashi returned his closed eye underneath his forehead protector.

"She did very well too," Inoichi spoke up brightly, at which Ino shot him a nasty look, "but, well, such an experience is a great burden to bear even for the most seasoned shinobi. As soon as possible, I'll recommend counseling to my colleagues." Kizashi rubbed Mebuki's back hopefully, but he appeared to be doing so to ease himself as much as he was his wife.

"I'm afraid that Sakura's troubles only begin with the pain she endured," the Hokage began. "The Wood Style was the kekkei genkai used by the founder of Konoha, and since then no one has been born with it. It allowed him, Shodaime-sama, to be regarded as the most powerful shinobi who ever lived."

"And now Sakura has it… she'll be hunted." Sasuke spoke for the first time, quietly. His dark eyes narrowed at the plant that had scoured the walls.

"Yes." Hiruzen Sarutobi extracted his pipe. "If Sakura continues as an active duty member of the main forces, knowledge of her new abilities will spread. Enemies, and even allies, could figure out her history, the suddenness of the kekkei genkai. Their suspicion could uncover the implant, and then countless villages would try to find out how they can either steal her abilities or replicate the effects of Orochimaru's procedure."

Sasuke rubbed at his left shoulder. Naruto cursed and pounded a fist into the wall. Ino stared blankly into the floor from her seat on the bench.

"I regret to say… this happenstance is my fault." The Hokage bowed low to Sakura's parents.

"What'r you talkin' about, gramps?" Naruto demanded. Hiruzen looked sadly to the young vessel.

"Orochimaru was my student. As his teacher, I failed to lead him on the proper path. As his enemy, I failed to eliminate him when I had the chance… and there may never be such a chance again. My inaction has since resulted in an unimaginable amount of victims and misfortune, of which young Sakura is now a part of." Kizashi nodded acceptance to the Hokage's apology as he led Mebuki back to the bench. The door to Sakura's room swung open once again.

"She's stable again," the medic proclaimed, "at this point she'll probably remain unconscious until her chakra recovers on its own, barring a transfer, but she does not belong to a clan with members her own age, so I'm not sure that could be done."

"W-wait!" Ino blinked out of her stupor and dashed up to the medic. "She and I are the same age! We have similar chakra too, I know her better than anyone! Can we try a chakra transfer?" she clenched her fists at the medic, who appeared taken aback.

"Ino Yamanaka..." the medic's eyes flitted across the clipboard. "It may work. I'll need consent from her parents. If it doesn't work, there will be no adverse effects beyond Yamanaka-san expending her chakra." Ino looked at the Harunos with belated breath.

"Of course, Ino-chan… you're her friend..." Mebuki whispered gratefully. Ino's lip tightened. She and the others followed the medic into Sakura's room. Her team took in the sight her pasty skin and the dirty pink hair strewn about the pillow. Naruto clenched his teeth. Sasuke covertly rubbed his fingers in a fist. Ino placed her hands on Sakura's shoulders. The medic flipped a seal onto Sakura's body, which began to glow.

"Start slow," he said. Ino nodded as her hands tingled. Mebuki wrung her hands nervously as her husband once again placed his hands on her shoulders. The clock ticked by with tension. Light beads of sweat dripped down Ino's brow.

"I'm almost out of chakra..." she wheezed. The medic began to raise a hand in signal of a stop. Sakura's hand twitched.

"Oh, my girl..." Mebuki sobbed as Sakura slowly sat up, where she was immediately swept in her mother's arms. The medic scanned over a paper filled with seals and chakra, and nodded to the Hokage, indicating Sakura's vitals were strong. Sakura didn't respond to her mother's cries. She looked over with half-lidded eyes to where Ino sat on her knees.

"Ino… thanks for your help," she said dully. Ino looked up into her former friend's vacant green eyes. Frozen, she found herself unable to reply to the sight of Sakura's trauma.

With no prelude, the Hokage strode up to Sakura's bedside. He bent down and removed his pipe.

"Sakura," he said seriously, "I must have your confirmation. Orochimaru the rogue ninja kidnapped you and used your body for experiments, is that right?"

Sakura's eyes widened, at once recalling the glint of yellow eyes and the hours of fiery pain. She clutched her face as tears streamed through her fingers. She nodded and burrowed herself in Mebuki's arms. Kizashi swooped over and grabbed them both in embrace. The Hokage sighed and rose, walking towards the door. Inoichi and Kakashi followed.

Naruto listened to Sakura's soft cries with fervid desperation. Looking upon his innocent teammate and the only love he'd ever known in life cradled with the care of family, he felt far from her. He was just an outsider.

Sasuke, who'd been watching Naruto carefully, grabbed his shoulder.

"Come on," he muttered. Naruto slowly turned away from the scene and followed Sasuke until they were outside the hospital gates. Sasuke felt a presence following them, but it had no intent, so he let it be. He turned to Naruto.

"Listen, they'll probably try to get Sakura to drop from the exam. Even if she fully recovers, I doubt they would want to blatantly show off the Wood Style, if she can even control it." Naruto looked down.

"Does Sakura-chan really have the power of the First Hokage now?" he wondered. Before Sasuke replied, he turned his head behind him.

"Ino, come over here," he called. Startled, the bright blonde girl emerged from behind a pillar.

"I—I wasn't trying to listen in, I just-" Ino quickly began.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Sasuke cut her off without looking at her, turning back to Naruto. "My family used to say that the only thing to have defeated the First Hokage was time itself. We saw what happened with those plants. There's no doubt that Sakura will be in great danger for the rest of her life as soon as word of this spreads… which it will."

"So she has no choice but to get stronger. _All_ of us need to get stronger." Naruto folded his arms. "Hey, Sakura-chan's more… like _us_ , now, you know?"

"Hn. You're only half-right on that one, loser." Sasuke shuffled his hands into his pockets. "After all, she still has her parents."

"I know that… I know…" Naruto looked away. Ino quickly looked to want to exit the conversation.

"The one thing we can do about this, right _now_ , is get back to our training," Sasuke declared. "That's how we… help Sakura," he admitted.

"Yeah… I got it, Sasuke," Naruto said.

"Ino," Sasuke finally turned to the girl, who looked back apprehensively. "Tell me, are you Sakura's friend or not?"

"I… I don't know, anymore..."

"Figure it out then, it's up to you to be there for Sakura in the ways Naruto and I can't, got it?" Ino gulped, but nodded vigorously. "You know," Sasuke turned back to Naruto, "Sakura once told me she thought you had it easy in life without any parents." Naruto's mouth fell open.

"She said… Sakura-chan-"

"Naruto, she's—thoughtless, a lot, she didn't have friends for a long time and she doesn't know-" Ino flustered to towards the other blonde, who in turn looked at Ino in bewilderment as she tried to appease him, something she'd never even remotely done before.

"Try not to worry… I doubt she still thinks that way. I called her out on that," Sasuke held out a hand. "My point is, _this_ is the only way she can understand us, Naruto. She was tortured, and the power of the Wood Style is sure to bring her more and more pain. _That's_ how she becomes more like _us_. Is this how you want others to understand you and I? What if one day she loses her parents too?" Ino turned around, stifling tears of regret.

"That's not it!" Naruto shook his head. "It's exactly because we understand those things that we need to keep them from happening, no matter what! That's why… even if Sakura-chan said that about me… I'll forgive her! She's still the same Sakura-chan of Team Seven!"

"Good," Sasuke nodded. That was what he'd wanted to hear from Naruto.

"Bastard..." Naruto muttered at his underhanded tactics. Ino stared in awe of Naruto for a moment, then turned to Sasuke, not meeting his eyes.

"Um, Sasuke-kun… you should know that I… I accidentally told Sakura about your brother. I'm… I'm sorry."

If Sasuke was surprised, he didn't show it.

"She would have found out eventually..." he said carefully. He observed Ino's startled cringe as she realized Naruto had heard her. "And I already told Naruto," he added. Ino again spared Naruto a glance of surprise, who nodded at her. Sasuke felt awkward in the lingering moment and was quietly grateful to see Kakashi walking towards them. "Your dad's probably waiting for you now, Ino." He jerked his head to Kakashi.

"Um, yeah, okay see you guys..." Ino said and scurried off. Sasuke and Naruto turned to Kakashi.

"Well boys, I think just about all that can be said for now has been said," he said heavily. Sasuke wondered if he'd been listening.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, are you and gramps gonna make Sakura drop out of the exam?" Naruto asked.

"That's quite astute of you, Naruto. Well, since we want to avoid making something like this public for as long as we can, we normally would, however, I doubt Orochimaru would like that. Unfortunately, if he wanted to, he could make this whole web of misfortune much, _much_ worse then if we just let it run it's course while we focus on getting Sakura as familiar with her new abilities as we can. On that note, I'll need to make a report right away on the events from our end today, so you can meet me back at the training grounds in a few hours, Sasuke. We'll need all the time we have left." Sasuke nodded. "How about you, Naruto, is your training going well?" Kakashi said to his next student. Naruto's eyed popped spontaneously.

"Ah! I forgot, I gotta get back to ero-sennin for the training!" Naruto sped off with a trail of dust in his wake. "Come get me if something bad happens to Sakura-chan!"

"Ero-sennin…?" Kakashi said curiously. "Well, I'd better get going," Kakashi waved to Sasuke as he poofed away.

Behind a fence across the street, Jiraiya shook his head.

"Man… what a mess..."

* * *

As Sasuke walked along the road in the afternoon light, he made his best effort to keep focus on what challenge, what obstacle he needed to overcome right there and then. In order to succeed at future goals, one had to focus on the present. What he needed to do _right now._

So as he tried to recall how much rice he had left at home and if he needed more, he almost didn't notice a small figure hunched inwards and silently treading water along the lake by his residence. The same lake which as a child had been as familiar to him as his own bedroom. When he realized who was sitting along the dock, he strolled down the hill with intrigue.

"I didn't think anyone came out here so close to the Uchiha clan grounds," he called out lightly.

"O-oh, um-" Hinata Hyuga shot up and pressed her fingers together. Sasuke suddenly thought that he probably shouldn't have startled her. He didn't know how her heart was doing after the fight with Neji, when her dying body had imprinted itself in his Sharingan. An ounce of regret entered his mind at the lack of foresight, a lack which had had the smallest possibility of contributing to an untimely death.

"I- I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, I know this area belongs to your family, I wasn't thinking where I was going so if you want to sit here I'll just-" she babbled at him. Sasuke decided to ease her nerves.

"It's fine. None of that matters to me," he said firmly. To his chagrin, Hinata didn't appear very calmed. Her hands played with her jacket and she looked back at the lake nervously. Sasuke walked up next to her. "No one is around to stop you," he sighed, "you can come here if you want." Hinata's pearl eyes blinked at him. Her hands fell from her jacket to her sides and she sat back down. Sasuke did the same and sat by her side. She didn't seem bothered anymore. They both looked at the water for a few moments as Sasuke remembered that most people tried to converse in this situation. He cleared his throat lightly.

"How's your chest?"

Somewhere, a great distance away, Jiraiya cackled. The connotation was blissfully lost on both Sasuke and Hinata, however.

"Well..." Hinata began quietly, "when I asked father to train with me today, he just said I wasn't recovered enough for taijutsu. So… I didn't have anything to do and I wandered off… I didn't mean to end up here, but..." Sasuke ignored her closing statement, trying to imagine Hinata retreating from her traditional home in a huff.

"Are you upset that you can't train right now, or that your father brushed you aside so easily?"

"...Both," Hinata said softly. Sasuke slowly closed his eyes.

"Does your father think you are weak?"

"...He always trains my sister. Even though she's so young, she's already stronger than me… I'm sure father believes that she'll do what's best for the clan someday," she said, shoulders slumping rather than answering his question.

Sasuke remembered a time when he'd stood where he was now, his young self far too aware of his father's stern face and crossed arms right behind him as he puffed out a tiny flame.

"...There's no shame in wanting to please your father," Sasuke told Hinata. She glanced at him with a note of concern at what lay within his words.

"Yes, you're right. Even so, I can't train right now," Hinata sighed. She turned back to watching the lake, where the sun began to dip behind the trees. Thoughts began to take form in Sasuke's mind against his better judgment. He stood up.

"If your injury means you can't train in taijutsu, you'll just have to train your ninjutsu or genjutsu," he declared. Hinata stared up at him.

"Um… father never taught me any more ninjutsu or genjutsu besides what I needed to know to fight against them."

"Why?" Sasuke said incredulously. Hinata played with her jacket again.

"H-he says that the Gentle Fist can be adapted for many different uses, so Hyuga should put all focus into being as good at it as possible..."

"Hn. That's probably fine if you're a regular ninja, but if you _really_ want to be strong, you need to know _everything._ Especially if you can't even use the 'ultimate taijutsu' right now." Sasuke jabbed a finger to her face, making Hinata squeak. "You need to be learning everything about being a ninja. Not everyone will be functioning in a team all the time. You should strive to be able to defeat any opponent, in any situation, on your own." Sasuke folded his arms. "If your father intended for you to believe that you had no options outside of the Gentle Fist, then he is a fool." Hinata opened her mouth as if to defend her father's choices, but Sasuke got to his feet. "Stand up," he ordered, and rummaged in his pocket. He shoved a paper into Hinata's small hands.

"S-Sasuke-kun, what is this?" she asked meekly.

"Paper from chakra trees. I was using them while learning to use lightning chakra a few weeks ago," he grunted. "Run your chakra through it."

With great uncertainty, Hinata clasped the paper in her hands. There was no reaction.

"More chakra, don't be afraid."

"O-okay..." Hinata squeezed her eyes shut. The paper ignited, crumbling to ashes that fell from her pale hands into the water.

Sasuke watched the ashes as they swirled under the wooden dock.

 _Fire… Little Hinata has fire affinity… of all things…_ He slowly turned towards the water. Hinata's luminous eyes watched him curiously.

"Watch closely. I will only do this once." Sasuke took a breath. As Hinata caught on to what he was doing, she struggled to activate her Byakugan with haste. Chakra swelled up through Sasuke's lungs.

"The seals are: _mi, hitsuji, saru, ii, uma, tora."_ Sasuke demonstrated.

 **Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!**

Hinata's chakra-enhanced vision watched the chakra spill from Sasuke's mouth and become roaring fire, shining a beacon out across the lake, the light making her eyes glow. Sasuke let the flame die and lowered his arm. He looked back into Hinata's Byakugan expectantly. Smoothly, she turned to the water and began moving her hands through the seal pattern, working on getting it down.

Sasuke knew that since she'd watched his chakra, Hinata would be able to do the Uchiha clan's rite of passage technique soon enough.

"It's been windy, so make sure you don't practice it anywhere but here, or you'll set fire to something." Sasuke returned his hands to his pockets and turned to leave. Hinata swiftly looked back to the Uchiha fan on his back as he walked up the hill.

"W-wait, Sasuke-kun!" The seals her fingers had been making dropped and she ran up behind him. "I u-um, I should repay you for showing me your family's jutsu and taking time out of your training, please— if there's something I can h-help you with..."

Sasuke stood still. He remembered how important his training was, and how he still had to get home first before finding Kakashi again.

She'd offered to repay him. It was only practical, he told himself.

"...Can you make onigiri?"

Hinata nodded sharply with a smile. Sasuke immediately turned from her face and began walking further in the Uchiha district.

Some time later, Sasuke hoisted a sack of neatly prepared onigiri while he and Hinata walked back to the lake. Hinata had been quick and efficient with his request, rolling the onigiri neatly while he gathered ingredients from his cupboards for her. Halfway he'd had to stop watching as the sight of soft, pale hands tumbling onigiri for him brought back painful memories.

"Sasuke-kun, about what you said earlier…" Hinata began. He turned from his memories to watch her in acknowledgment. "I absolutely want to be strong. I've spent a long time watching Naruto-kun. He never gives up despite how everyone has treated him, and each day I try hard to be more like him."

Sasuke recalled the blushing pixie face on the other side of the academy classroom from him. He'd figured as much.

"It's not such a bad thing to be more like Naruto," Sasuke decided. He took his bag and made for the training grounds. "See you later." He raised an arm in farewell.

"O-okay, thanks again Sasuke-kun!" Hinata skipped down to the dock enthusiastically and began practicing her hand seals.

Sasuke couldn't suppress a smile at the sight.

* * *

 **I'd looked forward to each of these scenes so much! There's still a little more stuff to go over before for Sakura before we get to the chunin exam finals.**

 **A theme I'd like to emphasize more in future scenes are Sasuke and Hinata's powers of observation. As doujutsu users, they naturally keep track of things with their eyesight that others don't. I think this is a critically important part of Sasuke's and Hinata's character interaction, and I have a very particular scene in mind for things way down the line.**

 **Some other things. Throughout the series, we're introduced to this idea that conflict in the world arises because people do not understand one another. The Sage intended for chakra to be used as a way for people to communicate without words. The way Ino was able to do a chakra transfer for Sakura is meant to be a part of that. We further see this in the series in instances where, likely, very few people actually understand what is happening and how it arises from this central theme. Nagato concluded that people needed pain to have a chance at understanding one another. Eventually, Naruto turned his desire to never give up into a mutual understanding with Sasuke, in which people can share pain and endure all strife together, until troubles come to pass, leading to greater understanding.**

 **And it all begins here.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~Iggy**


	6. Roots

Sakura coughed as she came back to a world of haze. Hands reached up to her throat, which was dry and sore. She saw a glass of water and, without thought, reached for it. Recollection of her brief slumber was a blur, as if her dreams had been going by too fast to process. Too much had happened; too much information for her brain to record into memory. As if reminded of them, Sakura felt her chakra surge from her grip. Like catching a cricket that had jumped from her hands, Sakura reflexively took a fierce hold over her body's energy. She glanced over to a corner of her hospital room where a potted plant had yet to be replaced from some previous incident. Again she was given a reminder.

The power of Hashirama Senju now swam through her being, a force of nature constantly trying to escape. The weights had been removed from her arms and legs, but now her spirit carried a far greater pressure upon it, constantly threatening to break free should she lose control.

Sakura exhaled and maintained her center. She swung her feet over the bed and touched down on the cold floor. As she did, a knock was heard, followed by the door opening.

"Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura murmured a greeting. The one-eyed ninja closed the door, inspected the sealing in the room, and carefully knelt down to eye level.

"Firstly, Sakura, I'm sorry. If I had been a more attentive teacher, perhaps you could have been spared from this fate." As Kakashi said this, Sakura saw a deep sorrow in his eye, buried and hidden, perhaps across years of composure. It was a sadness she could remember seeing in Sasuke sometimes when she saw him by himself. It was a sadness that a young Naruto had shown as her mother pulled her away from the sand pit where they'd played for the first and only time.

Suddenly, a swift and painful realization jumped down her spine. Tears pricked her eyes and she was possessed by a great need. "Sensei, are… my parents here?" _Parents…_

"I've informed them that I would be bringing you home soon. I believe they're hoping to prepare you a good meal for dinner tonight. I've been given permission to see to your discharge today, so long as you feel… capable," he said to her.

Sakura clenched her chakra harder. "...Yeah, alright."

"I'd normally give you some time off from missions or training, but… there's a lot I need to tell you, and not much time for me to do it." Kakashi held his hand out to usher Sakura alongside him through the door. She walked with little emotion.

"Where are Naruto and Sasuke-kun?"

"They've returned to their training, I suspect more vigorously than they were before. They feel that, as your teammates, they lack the strength to help you through this. Every shinobi experiences loss of some kind. For Naruto, this may be the first time he's had someone important to him have lasting harm. Sasuke, on the other hand, knows that feeling all too well. When that happens, shinobi will often put everything they have into becoming stronger, into preventing it from ever happening again." Kakashi sighed. "Of course, for people like Sasuke and myself, it continues to happen, despite our best efforts or how much power we gain."

Sakura could feel the power the realizations of her team's motivations in the shinobi world were having over her. Like so many other things now, she desperately held it back, not trusting herself to have the strength to face them yet.

Kakashi informed the desk of Sakura's discharge and they walked outside the building. Kakashi turned to face her. "You must understand, Sakura. I'd do anything as your teacher to help you out, but there _will_ be times where things go wrong. Your new kekkei genkai will one day be well-known, and you will be beset by foes at every turn for it. You _must_ be able to use it. You _must_ fight. You are already too far along in your career to conceal your existence, not that Orochimaru wouldn't try and do something about that."

"...Yes, sensei." She said obediently.

Kakashi was silent, and sighed again. "So, I'll ask you Sakura, you _need_ to continue through with the Chunin Exams, and you _need_ to learn enough control over the Wood Style to fight by then. Are you prepared to do that?"

"I didn't intend to remove myself from the exams, sensei," Sakura replied. Once again, Kakashi wished he'd been strong enough to face Orochimaru back then. He raised a hand, and a second shinobi appeared in a swirl of leaves. He had a plain appearance, save perhaps for his almond-shaped eyes. The sword on his back and his uniform suggested to Sakura that he was ANBU.

"You may call this person 'Yamato'. The Hokage has assigned him to help you for an indefinite period in using the Wood Style."

Before Sakura could ask how he would do that, Yamato clasped his palms together and a tree sprouted on the side of the road straight from the ground. She gasped, realizing that she could _feel_ it.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura-san." he said cheerfully. The prospect of his assistance gave her some much-needed warmth. Yamato nodded at Kakashi, who _poofed_ out of existence.

 _A shadow clone…_ Sakura thought. "Um… Yamato-san, how-"

"You're not the first person Orochimaru's done this experiment on, and you probably won't be the last, I'm afraid," he replied before she finished. "My immediate task is to help you control the Wood Style well enough for you to compete in the exams without losing control of it. Many ninja and officials from other countries will be there. I'm sure you understand that we'd like to avoid making this known. After that… well, we'll just go from there. I'm a far cry from Shodaime-sama, but right now I'm going to teach you some of the fundamentals; you'll be returning home in about an hour, and then we'll have to use the remaining two days as best we can." Yamato released his hands and Sakura took note of the seal he used. Sakura was about to follow him as he turned to leave when a nondescript old man halted Yamato.

"Now you wait right there _boy_ , I saw what you did there and you'd better believe I ain't lettin' you go without takin' that tree you made out of my sidewalk! Trash goes out tomorrow, y'hear?"

Sakura giggled softly, allowing the tension she held to ease ever-so slightly as Yamato hastily apologized, bowing low in embarrassment, and went to remove the offending tree while the old man grumpily crossed his arms.

Then, from one unexpected occurrence to another, there was a crash and a shaking from the front of the hospital just behind Sakura. Everyone gasped to where a giant, flat footprint had appeared in the ground, a short, blonde figure in road-cone orange in front of it.

Sakura ran up to Naruto as the hospital doors emitted several nurses. As part of her startlement she wondered if he was alright. She reached out to him, remembering her mother telling her that ' _Naruto-kun'_ had been the one who found her and brought her in when she hadn't been home, but the nurses we're already placing him on a stretcher. Her hand remained, outstretched, as Kakashi's words came back to her.

 _I'll buy him some ramen for when he wakes up,_ she thought, the second smile of the day upon her face.

* * *

The next morning saw Sakura as well rested as could be expected. Her parents had tried hard to maintain a normal atmosphere, and Sakura had appreciated that, however she felt a distance separating them. They were not a ninja clan. Her parents had gone to the academy, but had never progressed beyond genin; had never taken the Chunin Exams. They had not been active duty shinobi for many years, instead choosing to fill more menial but necessary side tasks to provide for Konoha, thus her father made sealing scrolls, exploding tags, and other amenities. Her mother had once worked a similar job, in which they had met and married.

Sakura was a second generation genin and a first generation Chunin Exam participant. Furthermore, she was a rookie entering the finals on her first attempt. That her whole team was such was an almost unfathomable feat.

All too early in her career, Sakura felt that her parents should not, or _could_ not, share her burden.

When Sakura kissed her parents' cheeks as she left her house after breakfast, their palpable relief disappointed her. It had been so easy to deceive them into accepting her well-being. She felt that she had no choice but to keep it that way.

Images of Naruto being carted into the hospital and Sasuke walking away with his hands in his pockets pushed strength into her legs as she ran to her training field. ' _I'm going to train,'_ he would always say whenever the team would separate, even if they had already spent the day training together instead of performing missions.

Sakura found herself wildly impatient. ' _Run through fields and seek strength'_ she recited.

 _More… I need more strength._

Her determined focus carried her past the Yamanaka flower shop without one glance through the open door, where she would have seen Ino perk up as the pink and red sped past.

"Sakura-" Ino raised a hand, then slowly returned it to the counter in dejection.

As Sakura ran up to the waiting Yamato with heaving breath, a set of eerie masks followed her path without notice. The mission which had taken place upon Sakura's admittance to the hospital had no parameters for completion. Konoha ANBU would thus keep watch over her indefinitely, not simply for security, but also to make reports on her abilities. The time came for the Hokage's update, and one masked individual signaled to their team and swiftly made for the tower. The ANBU approached the Leaf Village's central command unseen and crossed his or her fingers in a seal. A copy of the agent appeared behind them, concealed. As the original continued into the tower, the clone vanished through a grove of trees and descended into the earth.

In a cold chamber lit by torchlight the ANBU's hidden overseer waited patiently until the agent arrived.

Danzo looked down at his Root operative. "Report," he said simply as the ANBU knelt.

"In the time that Hokage-sama has ordered this mission, we have had visual confirmation of Sakura Haruno's Wood Style. Kakashi Hatake is already having the operative codenamed 'Yamato' assist her training."

That was adequate, Danzo decided. "Very well. Return to your post as scheduled." The Root operative dispelled themselves.

Danzo carefully walked to his chambers through his cane and bandages. Though he was still more than capable as a shinobi, there was never a reason to waste energy. _I certainly never trusted Orochimaru, but I'd hoped we wouldn't have to eliminate him this soon. While he has already provided me with the Wood Style, this new user has the capability to destabilize the balance in this region, especially with the smaller countries. The Hokage's decision to have the girl continue through the exam is distasteful, but there are few other options. Orochimaru won't let it remain quiet either way, but it is always best to walk into the trap one knows is coming. Additionally, Sakura Haruno has spent far too long as a shinobi exposed to the worldly sunlight for us to take her into Root. We'd never be able to acclimate her mind._

Danzo lowered himself to his desk and reached for a scroll that had appeared earlier in the morning. He unsealed it and read. It wasn't long before he laid it down.

 _So the former heir to Hyuga encountered Sasuke Uchiha. To think that he taught her Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu. Perhaps I've misjudged his character. It may have been chance, but the report indicated positivity. If they begin to have regular interaction it would be good to keep an eye on them._

Danzo raised an arm with two of his knuckles sticking up. Two other Root operatives appeared, speaking nothing and waiting for orders.

"I am giving you a mission. You are to survey Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga until the finals of the exam begin and possibly afterward. There is no need to be detailed, focus on any instances of interaction between them and behavioral changes you believe may result from them. It is possible that no such events will occur. The Byakugan is powerful and Kakashi Hatake is Konoha's most capable shinobi. Do not let them detect you."

Danzo lowered his hand and the two ninja disappeared without a word.

* * *

Sakura forced herself to tune out the rumble of the crowd and the high, oppressive walls of the arena. The anxiety that came with Naruto and Sasuke's conspicuous absences gnawed her being, threatening to break the focus that kept her chakra under control. The other exam participants did not seem equally apprehensive. If Neji was disappointed with Naruto's absence it didn't show. Kankuro and Temari kept a considerable distance from Gaara. Shino had not uttered a word when informed that his opponent, Dosu from the Sound, would not be competing and offered him a first round bye. Shikamaru, to Sakura's consternation, was squatting on the ground and staring at the clouds.

Sakura breathed deep to occupy her mind away from her teammates' absences, the noise of the crowd, the weight of the Wood Style, the memories of her night of torment…

She mustn't let any of it get to her now.

The man with the cough, Hayate, was also conspicuously absent. In his place was a new jounin who Sakura did not know, chewing absently on a senbon as he scanned the number of contestants with little thought. Inwardly, Sakura wondered if Hayate was absent due to illness, though a month was a long time. She hoped he was okay.

The new proctor glanced at a pocketwatch and gave a small nod to some ANBU in the distance. He began to raise his arm. Sakura gulped.

"...Hey… Hey now wait just a -"

Sakura whirled to the faint sound of what was unmistakably Naruto charging into the stadium from a distance. The procter stopped his arm with amusement as Naruto wheezed below him.

Out of all the things Sakura could have approached Naruto with in light of all that had happened, her mainstay topic seemed unchanged from before.

"Naruto, have you seen Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered to her panting teammate. The brief look Naruto gave her first was calculating. It made her shudder before he gave a normal reply, though not the one she was hoping for.

"Y'mean he's _gone?_ After all that talk?" Naruto was not mocking him, but seemed just as upset about it as she was. He kicked at the dirt. "No way. He'll be here, Sakura-chan, he _wants_ to be here." Naruto stared hard at the ground and turned to her. "Look, Sakura-chan -"

"He'll get here if he gets here," the proctor interrupted pointedly. "Anyway, it's time to get started. Now, Hayate wasn't able to come today, so I, Genma, will be the proctor for the Chunin Exam finals." Sakura saw that Genma looked across the group of genin carefully as he said this, continuing on after a pause. "Now first of all, it should come to your attention that we've made some changes to the program." He pulled out a swath of paper with the tournament bracket. The matchups were the same as before, except Shino was left unpaired. Naruto would fight first, and Sasuke second. Sakura would be third, fighting against Kankuro.

Genma gestured to the bracket and cleared his throat. "Well then, Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga, please remain for the first battle. The rest of you can follow those stairs to the contestant spectator booth." He pointed. Neji stepped forward obediently without a glance to his opponent. Naruto clenched his fist in remembrance of when it had held Hinata's blood.

The prospects of each of Naruto's and Sasuke's terrifying opponents had eaten through Sakura's composure throughout the whole of the past month. Instinctively, almost thoughtlessly, Sakura reached out and grasped Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto froze immediately and carefully turned to meet her eyes. He saw the furrow of her brow and the hardness of jade in Sakura's eyes. The weight of this brief gesture towards Naruto was not lost on Sakura.

"I'll win," he said in a low, determined voice.

"Come back safe, okay?" Sakura replied with her own determination.

As she retreated to the booth with the other contestants, Naruto did his best to ignore the tingling sensation Sakura's hand had left his shoulder with. In the center of the ring, he bore his blue eyes to match Neji's Byakugan.

Sakura had trained her eyes anxiously on the fight for at least fifteen minutes. Naruto had used the obvious tactic given the unprecedented close quarters effectiveness of the Hyuga clan, and persistently used his shadow clones and ranged weaponry. Yet in return, Neji's power and experience seemed unreal. When he'd spun around and a faintly visible blur of blue blew away all of Naruto's clones and weapons Sakura stiffened.

" _Was that chakra?"_ she thought, _"I thought chakra couldn't normally be seen to the unaided eye…"_

Naruto continued his aggression undeterred, his clones blanketing Neji in combos, but the talented youth slipped through the cracks faster than water, ducking and diving forth to demolish the clones left, right and center. The Byakugan eliminated Narutos whether in front or in back, from all angles of vision.

And, of course, the Naruto hanging back would be the real one, no Byakugan necessary.

Neji railed upon the lone Naruto and unleashed a barrage of lightning-fast finger strikes, keeping him immobilized upon a pincushion of sheer chakra. The strength Neji possessed and the caliber of his techniques were out of Sakura's world. Neji had not squandered the thought of fighting the loser of the Rookie Nine, and his development was stunning yet horrifying.

The hidden thought Sakura had harbored - that there was simply no way for Naruto to beat Neji - reared up inside her in fear.

The long pause in the fight that went on did nothing to settle Sakura. Neji and Naruto had begun talking, but unlike in the preliminaries the spectators were too far to hear, especially over the crowd, and lip reading was a highly unreliable skill.

Sakura knew that Neji's elegantly brutal combo had sealed Naruto's tenketsu to the point of rendering him virtually powerless. With a flash of anger of her own, Sakura thought that Neji was no doubt telling this to Naruto. When her teammate began shaking his head and jabbing a finger in Neji's direction, Sakura finally smiled, though she still lacked hope for Naruto's victory.

Neji's eyes grew calmer, and he removed his headband. Sakura saw the cross mark across his forehead, colored a dull, poisonous green.

"Is that some kind of jutsu?" Sakura said to herself under her breath.

"Looks like a seal," Shikamaru spoke up nearby. "Not really my thing though, maybe Shino knows more about it."

On her other side, the nearly invisible bug user spoke softly. "Yes. As her teammate, I know that Hinata does not possess such a seal. It is probably the means which the main family controls the branch family in the Hyuga. Why? For it to be branded on the skin like that, it is probably a curse seal, meaning it cannot be removed and is meant to provide the giver of the seal some kind of control over the victim." Shino poked at his glasses.

Sakura's blood chilled at 'curse seal'.

"I get it." Shikamaru said humorlessly. "Something like that probably seals the Byakugan when they die too, to keep it out of enemy hands. Still, why'd they have to go and make something so troublesome? At least my clan doesn't do things like that…"

She saw Shino nod in agreement.

Neji replaced his headband as he appeared to finish talking. The look on Naruto's face echoed what she'd remembered him with from the day Sakura had first woken in the hospital.

She shuddered. That look made her chest clench, for it was so far removed from the Naruto who'd been on her team for over six months now. This was the Naruto who quavered in powerlessness, from her Wood Style, from Zabuza and Haku, and as the small boy left alone on the playground.

This was the Naruto who hated the world, and she knew that look didn't belong on him. She'd seen it enough on Sasuke.

So when Naruto jabbed a thumb to his heart and pointed at Neji again, his mouth making words with weight, Sakura's fear eased. That was the Naruto reaction she expected. Naruto formed a tiger seal and Neji resumed his guard stance.

Neither moved for several seconds, until without warning Sakura felt a wave of unreal terror crash into her.

She stared wide-eyed as red haze oozed off of Naruto's body. When Sakura blinked she swore she could still see the red underneath the darkness of her eyelids, for it was a beacon to her. An outpouring of hatred without fathom and a smell like ancient dust, fire, and blood.

Sakura swiftly collapsed to her knees, every inch of her body trembling. Her eyes didn't leave Naruto when he launched himself at Neji like a torpedo.

"Oi, Sakura! What's wrong?" Shikamaru said, kneeling down.

"I… what is this… Naruto…" Sakura heaved in near panic.

"I shall fetch the medics," Shino announced and began quickly making for the recovery room.

"No! No… please… don't…" Sakura breathed as Shino stopped. Through this foreign despair, Sakura clenched her teeth. She could not let this pull her out of the exam. She rose shakily from the ground by pulling at the railing. "It's okay… guys… I'm okay, alright?" she grunted.

Shikamaru wasn't convinced. "That's not what it looks like to me. Look, I can see you've had a hundred and one things on your mind lately, and with what's going on here with Naruto and Sasuke, maybe you should just take it easy, and -"

And suddenly, the terror halted. Sakura rose to full height, and her trembling stopped. "It… it's gone? Just like that?"

Shikamaru gave pause.

"Look, the fight is over," Shino said.

There Naruto stood, round blue eyes and bright orange jumpsuit unhindered by red. He was panting with his fist lowered as Neji lay flat on his back, no longer composed but injured and exhausted.

After suspiciously eyeing Sakura for trouble Shikamaru scanned the field. "There's a tunnel; looks like he left a clone so he could sneak underground and get the jump on him. That's Naruto for you. Still, how was he suddenly able to fight Neji to exhaustion?"

As Sakura breathed with relief she heard the slow, steady rise of clapping from the stands. Naruto caught wind of the noise and looked around in bewilderment.

Sakura smiled softly as his expression morphed like a kid in a candy store.

 _That's right you idiot… They're cheering for_ you _._ Sakura snorted when he'd begun blowing kisses at the audience while he pranced his way to the stairs.

Had Sasuke been present, Sakura might have had the ease of mind to be more exuberant than give Naruto a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"You fool, I was worried - how'd you pull that off?"

"How? Uh… well I guess he ended up writing me off as loser and never saw me coming!" Naruto laughed.

"Hey, what were you two talking about down there?"

Naruto's laughter halted as he inspected his nosy teammate. He crossed his arms and looked away pensively.

"Well, how can I say it - I've spent a long time writing nasty people off as just jerks, y'know? But I've been thinkin' more and more that most of th' time they aren't that way for no reason, like with Zabuza and even Sasuke, I guess…" He squinted down to where Neji was being carried to the infirmary and looked back to her. "That guy's been through a lotta crap with his family and it's made him think weird stuff and look down on people. But today he got beat by me an' all, so…"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What, you mean you just like, beat some sense into him or something?"

Naruto pounded a fist. " _Yeah!_ I like the sound of that, Sakura-chan! That's exactly what I did! Well, I hope, anyway, I mean it'd be great if he an' Hinata could get along like siblings, right? I think Neji could manage it!"

Sakura stared at her teammates cheshire grin. "You want to believe in the best in people, huh?"

"Well yeah! Ya can always be a better person or a better ninja than you were before, you just can't give it up is all."

As Sakura lay her arms and head across the overlook, something in her chest felt warmed by Naruto.

She remembered the issue at hand as she saw the tournament bracket and a few ANBU disperse from the proctor. He raised an arm and spoke with some kind of projecting jutsu. _"Due to the demand for this match, we are postponing the next fight between Sasuke Uchiha and Sunagakure no Gaara by moving it to the last bracket. Should Sasuke Uchiha not arrive by then, he will be disqualified. As such, we are moving ahead; it will be Sakura Haruno vs Sunagakure no Kankuro!"_

While the crowd murmured in discontent, Sakura gulped and began walking to the stairs. Looking over, she saw Temari whisper something to Kankuro, who just waved her off and patted the bandaged wrapped puppet on his back - at least Sakura assumed that it was. She saw the predatory grin on his face and quickly turned back to the stairs.

Naruto rushed up next to her in what he probably thought was a very inconspicuous manner. "Hey, Sakura-chan - are you - y'know, gonna use _that_?"

"No," she said quietly, "not if I don't have to. I don't have enough chakra and I haven't mastered any techniques yet. All I can do is keep myself from using it accidently… That's what Yamato-sensei - he's helping me with it, from ANBU - wants me to do too, so that people don't see it."

Naruto looked at her with a hard, concerned look. "I believe in you Sakura-chan." He returned her pat on the shoulder.

She replied with a worn smile. "Thanks, Naruto."

* * *

"I apologize for the delay, Kazekage-dono. I'm afraid it's a bad habit of Kakashi's," the Hokage offered to the figure sitting next to him in corresponding robes.

"I'm sure he and his student simply wish to ensure that all of their preparations are in order," the so-called Kazekage replied evenly, "they will need them, after all, if Sasuke-kun hopes to defeat our Gaara. Meanwhile, we have a match between our own Kankuro and Sasuke-kun's teammate, yes? I am curious to see how this… rookie kunoichi fares against an older and more experienced opponent."

The Hokage coughed. "Well, at my age I can only hope there aren't _too_ many surprises in store today."

Beneath the white robes Orochimaru chuckled in reply. _'Surprises' indeed, Sarutobi-sensei,_ he thought as he retracted a hand into his sleeve to form a ram seal for just the right moment to coax the chakra of the First Hokage out of his little experiment.

* * *

As soon as the proctor's signal fell Sakura hurled two kunai in the air where the Sun met the perspective of her opponent. The two kunai bounced off each other, something she'd seen Sasuke do before, sending one hurtling towards Kankuro in the blinding path of the rays.

As Kankuro could not see the path he was forced to dodge instead of counter. As he did he spotted a blur of pink out of his eye.

 _Nice trick, but I_ live _in the Sun, girl!_ Kankuro thought with a smirk on his painted face, catching Sakura's foot.

 _That paint on his face makes him harder to be blinded by sunlight,_ Sakura realized. Without her weights she launched waves of taijutsu at a far greater speed than what she was capable of in the preliminaries. A kick landed on Kankuro's chest sending him back to the wall. Before he made impact, he swung his arms and blue chakra threads attached themselves to the stadium walls, stopping him in the air.

"Quite a lotta training she must have done compared to the prelims," Kankuro grunted as he lowered himself to the ground.

Sakura cursed and reached for a scroll in her pouch. _Never water around when you need it,_ she thought, throwing the scroll in the air. There was a puff of smoke and enough water to make mud out of most of the ground burst forth. With a flash of seals Sakura sent tendrils of water towards Kankuro.

 **Suiton: Suiben no Jutsu!**

Kankuro leapt back as water lashed his blocking arms. _Yow! That smarts!_ Kankuro hissed in pain as blood appeared where the whips had gotten him. In deference he leapt further back, but the earth began to sink where he landed. _Clever girl…_

 **Doton: Tsuchi no hoji!**

As Kankuro jerked his sunken feet Sakura's hands flipped through more seals.

 **Doton: Tobi tsubute!**

Sakura slammed her palms to the wet ground and from under the mud came numerous and angular cobble projectiles hurled towards the struggling Kankuro. He looked up and grit his teeth. He splayed his fingers and chakra threads came forth, attaching to each flying rock with precision. He jerked his wrists and in one motion sent the rocks high flying back in Sakura's direction. While Kakuro continued to pull his feet free Sakura focused on avoiding the rocks from her own attack. Each one she avoided returned to the mud with satisfying _plops_.

Sakura settled near the large tree in the arena where the ground was harder. She watched Kankuro balance on the mud with his chakra to avoid a second binding. _Damn, it didn't work. He hasn't used any puppets yet either, only those chakra threads. I don't know if I can continue. If he uses a puppet I might be able to surprise with a counter if it's made of wood but I still don't know if it is. Why is he so conservative?_

Kankuro reached back for his bandaged 'Crow' puppet. _And here I told Temari I could fight without revealing this against a weak opponent._ His hand stopped when he saw her haggard breath. _Nah, I'm still fine. She's already used most of her chakra. I just have to keep playing safe and I'll win by default._

Sakura rested her hand against the tree as she caught her breath.

* * *

Up in the top box, Orochimaru flexed the one-handed seal inside his sleeve while a convenient false arm lay still along the rest of the seat.

With a jolt, he sent the small amount of his own chakra that remained inside Sakura Haruno down into the earth.

* * *

Sakura's body lurched as without warning the cricket leapt from her grasp. A miniature forest sprouted from beneath Kankuro, rapidly encasing him in thick wooden saplings.

At the same time, Sakura's own chakra poured into the tree next to her, causing it to shudder and widen towards her as it grew towards the top of the wall.

"What the -" Kakuro sputtered as he was immobilized.

Sakura fell to her knees as she hastily regained control of the trees. _What… what happened? That wasn't me!_

The stands erupted into gasps of shock, excited whispers, and cries of outrage from some of the foreign dignitaries.

Sakura stared from down on the ground to where Kankuro lay suspended in the tanglewood, his beady eyes fearfully wide. In the white haze she grew torn between figuring out what had happened and continuing the match. With a burst of realization she snatched a kunai from her pouch and leapt towards her opponent with obvious intent to drive it home.

Kankuro reflexively readied a finger to unfurl his 'Crow' upon the wood around him, but stopped short. "I forfeit!"

Sakura's kunai froze, inches from his throat.

* * *

 ***Dodges fruit* Well hey fancy meeting you guys here. I'm gonna try to get back into the habit of writing, even without my laptop available.**

 **I realize Orochimaru's actions may be a bit hazy so far, but hopefully they'll become more clear next time. On that note, Hinata will get some more focus too, and her major role will become increasingly apparent. As for Danzo, you might be wondering what he'll be doing, but it won't be terribly extreme; I often find people misinterpret his character a little bit.**

 **I'm gonna keep on rollin' from my end.**

 **~Iggy**


	7. Bonds

Sakura's return to the spectator room was slowed by her exhaustion and the sudden appearance of her Wood Style. _It had to be Orochimaru, no way that was me. Did he do something else to me? Why bring out my Wood Style like that? I won the match because of that!_

Upstairs Naruto appeared directly in front of her. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Way to show what Team Seven's made of, Sakura-chan!"

She smiled. Naruto continued. "It was great, but... " He folded his arms. "Is something wrong? It looked kind of…"

Sakura opened her mouth in reply but a voice materialized from by the stairs. "Sakura Haruno-san?" A black-hooded figure in an ANBU mask had spoken. "We saw the Wood Style was used, but something was off with the technique. We'd like to hear from you what happened, to ensure everything is alright."

Sakura nodded and followed the ANBU out of earshot of the others. Naruto went with her immediately, which to her surprise the ANBU said no words against. The ANBU gave her a 'clear' signal and Sakura spoke. "It was not my intention to use the Wood Style until my opponent had revealed his puppet technique. What I felt was like my chakra was… maybe not as precise as 'controlled' but coerced by an outside source. I suspect Orochimaru performed this somehow."

The ANBU nodded and held up a hand where she saw a hint of green chakra. _He's a medical ninja,_ Sakura thought as the masked ANBU ran his hand over her forehead without contact.

"If Orochimaru did use his own chakra through you, it appears to be gone now," the ANBU said. The voice sounded familiar, Sakura thought. She might have met him in the village before, after all ANBU did not disclose their identities unless ordered to. "Foreign chakra does not linger long without some sort of seal, which would have been found while you were in the hospital. Perhaps that single event was his only intention of you."

"Um, why would he make me use my chakra and win the match, exactly?" Sakura said politely.

"So that everyone knows," the ANBU said simply, and disappeared.

Sakura chilled suddenly. _That's right… this whole arena saw. All the ninja in the village, civilians, the Sand, and the foreign dignitaries too._ Sakura turned her head to the rest of the booth. Shikamaru's gaze was piercing and calculating. She could not see Shino's eyes, but knew they were on her. Kankuro and Temari were watching with thinly-veiled apprehension, like she was a true enemy. The only one not watching her was Gaara, who did not seem to care.

Naruto growled at the looks she was getting. "C'mon, Sakura-chan, let's go to the medical wing so they can look you over." _Dammit… Dammit!_ He thought.

Sakura allowed Naruto to usher her out of the room. Somehow, she thought to herself, she had to explain this to all her classmates properly.

It was at least an hour before she was cleared to go by the medic on duty. Naruto had not left her sight, except once when she'd asked him how the next match was going. He'd come back looking kind of irritated. "Does Shikamaru even _want_ to be a chunin? Why's he here if he's gonna quit while he's ahead?" He'd said. Sakura laughed.

When they'd returned Shikamaru's match had finished - with his surrender. Temari looked supremely irritated despite having won the match and was no longer looking at Sakura.

Sakura led Naruto up to Shikamaru with determination. "Hey, Shikamaru, what is the status of the next match?"

For his part, Shikamaru did not act like anything was different. "Sasuke has about fifteen more minutes to get here before he's disqualified," he nodded to a clock on the wall.

Naruto rubbed his fists. "What is that guy thinking? I'll beat the crap out of him myself if he doesn't show."

Sakura was quiet before she addressed the elephant in the room. "Shikamaru, I want to explain what happened down there to everyone. I don't want the wrong information to get to people."

"We'll talk after the exams. If I tell Ino to she'll round up everyone from our class in an instant." Nearby, Shino nodded in agreement. "I have some ideas," Shikamaru continued lazily, "but none of them really make sense. That's just what happens when I don't have enough information."

Sakura smiled, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Hey Sakura-chan, let's go down to the arena, that's where Sasuke will be when he gets here - and he _will_ ," Naruto added forcefully.

"Alright, Naruto." Sakura replied.

* * *

"Where th' heck have you guys been?" Naruto burst out to the two figures who'd appeared in the arena via shunshin no jutsu. "And what's with your _hair?_ "

"Hair grows, Naruto," Sasuke said easily. "I haven't had time to waste."

"Sorry for the wait," Kakashi said to both the proctor and his two students. "We still had some things to work on."

"Did you win?" Sasuke said bluntly to them both.

"Of course!" Naruto pumped his fist.

"Yeah, but…" Sakura began, "Orochimaru interferred somehow."

"Word got to me too," Kakashi added, "the ANBU debriefed you, correct?"

"Yes," Sakura said, "they think Orochimaru only intended to have everyone see it."

"We'll have to talk about what the implications of that are, Sakura," Kakashi said seriously.

Sasuke eyed her. "Does the way you won upset you?"

"...Of course it does," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes at the ground. She clenched her fist. Sasuke smirked.

"Hey, uh… we gotta get this match started, so -" the proctor made a shooing motion with his hand.

Naruto bit his cheek and burst out to Sasuke. "Hey - that guy, Gaara - he's… he's like _me_ , only he's still alone. Don't take it easy."

"Wasn't planning on it." Sasuke said primly. "After all, I want to fight you afterwards."

Naruto looked astonished. Sasuke smirked again. Sakura looked back and forth from them with a raised eyebrow.

 _Boys,_ she thought to herself.

The next several minutes in the spectator box were a blur of Lee-caliber taijutsu, sand shenanigans, and the sound of chirping birds.

"So you actually taught it to him, Kakashi. Your one and only original technique, Chidori!" Gai-sensei said with a sense of competitive resignation as Sasuke hurled his speared hand of lightning into Gaara's sand shield.

Since around the start of Sasuke's lightning jutsu, however, Sakura had again felt unnatural chills from the stadium.

As she shivered, Kakashi looked over. "Are you alright, Sakura?"

"S...sensei, I don't know why, but -"

She stopped shaking. The coldness left as soon as it had come.

Even at distance, the scream from inside the sand could be heard well and clear.

" _Blood! It's my blood!"_

Down at the stadium, the sand around Sasuke's arm pushed him away and opened to reveal Gaara - holding his face where blood seeped through his fingers for the first time.

That was what Sakura would come to remember as the moment when white feathers began falling from the sky. All around the stands, civilians nodded off in unison. Gaara's brother and sister jumped into the arena and carried him up and out of the stadium. Next to her, Naruto dropped into slumber.

* * *

"What is the meaning of this, Kazekage-dono?" The Hokage said calmly as the other white-robed figure stood behind him with a kunai to his throat.

"You've grown so old, Sarutobi-sensei, I'm here to force you into retirement," the figure hissed.

"Ah, so it was you, Orochimaru."

* * *

Hinata meticulously performed the calming excercises her doctor had taught her while she darted furtively around the enemy shinobi clashing with jounin and chunin whom had been in the audience and resisted the mass genjutsu. When she'd seen the white feathers and the people falling into unnatural slumber, Hinata had reflexively activated her Byakugan and dispelled the foreign chakra with her own. Luckily, her chest no longer hurt like it had earlier. She regretted not thanking the ANBU medic who had tended to her, but not nearly as much as she regretted leaving Kiba and Akamaru behind to the genjutsu.

She did not know where Kurenai-sensei was, so the ones who she felt she needed to get to above all were her family. Her hasty decision had prevented her from waking Kiba and Akamaru - something she was constantly trying to push out of her mind.

 _The enemy won't hurt them - not while Konoha shinobi are around to fight. Incapacitated targets aren't their priority. They'll be fine… just fine…_

She gulped and her heart pounded in terror, though it was again strong and healthy.

With her Byakugan she saw her father smoothly dispatch several enemy shinobi on his way to the stands where Hanabi was.

By the time Hinata had made it to him Hanabi was secured in his arms. He'd certainly seen her coming, and didn't face her.

"F-father, what has happened?" Hinata cried.

"We are under attack," Hiashi replied strongly, "I see Sand and Sound shinobi. Lord Third has engaged Orochimaru the rogue ninja in single combat." As he turned to her, his Byakugan continuously scanned the arena. Hanabi did not stir in his arms, though Hinata was sure the genjutsu just needed to be cancelled. She opened her mouth to say so but Hiashi continued preemptively. "You must leave. You're in no condition to fight, and this is no genin mission."

"P-please, father, an ANBU medic helped me today, and my heart feels much better! I-I learned new ninjutsu techniques, let me help!" She strengthened her Byakugan to prove it.

Hiashi fixed his own Byakugan on his daughter's injury. "In that case, there is something else you must do."

Hinata began to protest her father for the first time she could remember. "But -"

"Take your sister to the shelter at the Hokage Mountain." He positioned Hanabi so that he could pass her over. "If you take her, I, the most powerful of the Hyuga, will be better able to defend the village."

Hinata gulped and nodded, turning around so that her father could place her sister on her back.

"You are my firstborn daughter, who possesses the Byakugan. You are a shinobi of Konoha. You are capable of this, Hinata." Hiashi turned away to the battlefield brewing below.

"Yes, father," Hinata said with a quiet tremble. Never had her father trusted her so much to succeed.

"Do not fight. If you die, your sister dies too. If you must fight, do not let Hanabi fight. Despite her strength, she is too young." Hiashi vanished with a shunshin.

The spring of anticipation uncoiled and Hinata leapt into action, her muscles twitching. Sweat collected under her jacket despite the brisk temperature each time her Byakugan caught sight of gray or brown fatigues instead of Leaf green.

She managed to safely scale the wall with Hanabi's small form pressed against her back, her feet burning from the amount of chakra she'd used. Hinata jumped from the nearest tall building, finding a path out of sight to leap from wall to wall down to one of Konoha's many alleyways. After looking broadly to see if it was clear Hinata set Hanabi down. She placed a hand on her forehead, and stopped.

 _Father didn't say if I should wake Hanabi. If she sleeps now she can wake up once she's safe and none the wiser…_ Hinata began building chakra. _No, he said not to let her fight, that also means he left it up to me to decide. To_ me.

"Kai," Hinata broke the genjutsu on her sister.

Hanabi stirred and rubbed her eyes sleepily. "'M tired…" she mumbled. Without releasing her Byakugan, Hinata waited for Hanabi's awareness to return. She shook Hanabi's shoulder carefully.

"Hinata-nee-sama…?"

Hinata put a finger to her lips. "Hanabi, please listen closely," she whispered. "Until just now, you were under a genjutsu, along with most of the audience."

Hanabi paused, then looked around jerkily. "Where are -"

Hinata grabbed both of her sister's shoulders this time and steadied her. "We are outside the arena now. Hanabi - the village is under attack."

Hanabi's lilac eyes widened.

"There are enemy shinobi from the Sand and Sound coming in through the village walls. I saw them earlier. Father has gone to fight."

Hanabi suddenly looked very afraid. Tears traveled to the corners of her eyes, overwhelming any semblance of her shinobi training. Their father had been right, Hinata realized, masking her own fear for the sake of her seven year-old sister. _She is too young…_

"H-Hanabi, it's going to be okay, understand? Father is not w-weak. Remember - the Hyuga are the strongest in Konoha. Now, you and I need to get to the shelter. You know where it is, right?" Hinata quavered, and steeled herself even harder to keep her shield from cracking.

Hanabi swallowed, and nodded.

"Alright, Hanabi. When we go I want you to follow behind me as closely as you can. I know we don't use them much, but neither of us has any weapons, so we're going to keep away from any enemies. Our vision let's us do that when others can't," Hinata encouraged.

Hanabi's eyes cleared with some degree of understanding and assurance.

Hinata took a breath, released Hanabi's shoulders, and stood up. "Alright, Hanabi - activate your Byakugan."

Hanabi slowly made a tiger seal and veins bloomed from towards her temples.

"Do not release it until we are safely inside the shelter. We will go between the buildings, not above them or along the ground." Hinata turned to where the alley led around a corner.

"Um - Hinata-nee-sama, if we find shinobi fighting, what if we pretend to be civilians? They'll either ignore us or try to take us hostage, and then we can -"

"N-no, Hanabi," Hinata interrupted. "I'm afraid that will not work. The Sound Village was founded by O-Orochimaru. You may not have read about the Leaf's enemies, but Orochimaru is a very powerful rogue ninja, and the Leaf was his home. When f-father was born, Orochimaru was already a shinobi. H-he knows the Leaf and the Land of Fire even better than we do. His shinobi will _know_ our eyes, and they will… kill us on sight."

Hanabi shifted her eyes and nodded.

Hinata sighed. _Hanabi is trying so hard to be strong, to act like the shinobi father has trained her to be._ She looked up the wall and signaled for Hanabi to follow her. Behind her she saw Hanabi crouch to jump, and they went.

* * *

Sasuke groaned against the wide branch of the tree. Black flame-like markings itched underneath his neck as they struggled to get free.

The malformed monstrosity of sand grinned with unearthly pleasure at it's prey's vulnerability.

Sasuke's second Chidori had petered out, and with it, his mission and his life would soon follow. _Was I really not strong enough? Am I to fall here without even meeting my brother again? Shit…_

Gaara sprung forth, a clawed arm of sand outstretched to rend and tear.

"Sasuke!" A loud and annoying voice cried out in defiance of fate and the blur of orange collided ungracefully with Gaara, sending him sprawling back to the tree.

A part of Sasuke grimaced at the absurdity of it all. _Great, I owe my life to the loser now._

Sakura's cotton candy hair swam into view as he felt himself being lifted by the shoulder.

"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?" she whispered. He saw her shaking, from his scene of misfortune or something else.

"Not really," he grunted. He felt her breathing heavily. "What's wrong?" he ground out from his aching body.

"I… I don't know, I think it's coming from… Gaara. I felt it when you were in the stadium before. It… it went away after you injured him, b-but now -" she hiccuped and set him down at a distance from Gaara, unable to carry him far in her state of unease. Sasuke saw Naruto back off as Gaara righted himself.

"From him?" he asked Sakura. "What does it feel like? Are you feeling chakra, like a sensor-type ninja?"

"I-I've never been a sensory-type, but it… it feels cold. And dark, and… old. _Really_ old. I don't know how I know, but…" Sakura heaved a little as Naruto jumped up to them. He'd caught the last wind of Sakura's words. His expression reminded Sasuke of their first battle.

"I remember now," Naruto said in a low voice. "Me an' Shikamaru ran into that guy while I was at the hospital the other day. He told us about himself. His dad's the Kazekage - when he was born, his dad sealed a monster inside of him. They wanted to make him into a weapon, but it didn't go well - or something - an' his dad, _his own village_ , kept trying to kill him ever since he was a kid, but he killed them all instead." Naruto had an odd expression on his face. "I just wish - _I wish_ \- I knew if he's like _that_ -" he nodded to where Gaara was chuckling madly at the arrival of more targets - "because of the demon in him, or if that's really how he feels…" Naruto's face wasn't much different from Sakura's.

Sakura tried to steady herself. "That must be what I've been feeling all this time… whatever this chakra is, it's not human, and it's been around a very long time. I don't know how…"

A distant memory tugged the corner of Sasuke's mind, the part of him he could never decide if he wanted to forget or remember. "...My cousin," he began, "when I was little he told me a story about giant beasts with lots of tails." Naruto stiffened. "He called them demons of enormous chakra, and that long ago the First Hokage was able to use the Wood Style to subdue them. He offered them to the different ninja villages. It kept the peace all the way until the First Great War started. The Sand must have gotten one, and now -"

The three genin looked towards Gaara. His face was now covered, sand forming the teeth and ears of an animal. His clawed arms were curled around his branch and his tail swayed back and forth.

"The Wood Style, and the demon inside of him…" Sakura said slowly. Naruto gulped and made his earnest impression of a frightened rabbit. Considering his improvement since their mission to Wave, Sasuke found his demeanor odd.

Of course, Gaara gave him no time to contemplate it.

"He's coming!" Sasuke shouted as Gaara leapt at the three of them without preamble. Naruto scrambled out of the way of Gaara's massive arm. Sasuke pushed his leaded limbs off the tree, but could easily see he could not move fast enough without his Sharingan. Sakura thought the same and bent her knees. She sent one foot behind the other and held up her arms defensively, looking like she was running against the wind.

At the sight of Sakura's face Gaara groaned and grasped his head with his free arm. " _Go away, Yashamaru!"_ He swiped his claw into Sakura's stance, who jerked like a whip. She held up her arms and the blow sent her body careening into another tree some distance away.

Despite Sasuke still being in the spot where Sakura had been Gaara roared and leapt again towards her landing. Naruto swore and through his fear propelled himself from a tree towards Sakura's beaten form. In a slow haze, the image of Sasuke's mother and father neatly stacked ontop of one other, eyes closed, gaping maws in their chests, and dark swathes of blood across the living room floor burned beneath Sasuke's eyelids at the moment Gaara swerved to Sakura. The dark flames of the Curse Seal engulfed him, sending him there before Naruto could make it.

Sakura cried out in pain after Sasuke set her down again. Naruto ran up the tree to join them.

"M-my arm… broken…" she whimpered, holding her left forearm at a gruesome angle. "Can't make seals… Wood Style… right and left together-"

"Don't talk anymore, just breathe!" Naruto barked as he broke off a straight branch and fumbled his fingers through tying it to her arm. He finished and sighed, relieved that it appeared to be tied correctly.

Gaara laughed raucously at Sakura's pain. More sand accumulated on his arms and he bellowed out towards Team Seven. "This can't be all you have, Sasuke Uchiha! I need more than this to make my life interesting!"

Sasuke climbed to his feet and once again made the three hand seals for the Chidori. Eventually, the chirping of birds resounded, though he could no longer feel his arm.

Gaara saw it and immediately leaped through the trees.

Sasuke sprang after him. His arm shook in midair and the lighting waned rapidly. He cursed in his mind as Kakashi's words came back to him: ' _There won't be a third time.'_

When Gaara cried out as his sand arm fell away and Sasuke landed with lighting in his palm the two onlookers saw clearly what Sasuke had done in the instant of exchange. The flame markings of the Curse Seal were unleashed from Sasuke's neck and firmly covered his body. Sasuke eyed his opponent maliciously and retreated back to his team.

Naruto had returned to Sakura's side. He looked up to Sasuke and then to Gaara with that lasting look of fear on his face.

Sakura, keeping her arm still, stood up slowly as she gaped at the black marks on Sasuke's face. "S-Sasuke-kun! Your Curse Seal is -"

"I let it out," he growled.

"But…"

"...I lost everything once," Sasuke began slowly. "I don't want to see my friends and family die before my eyes while I was helpless to stop it ever again." He forced the Chidori to flare brighter, but it began to burn his arm.

Something in his words sparked a change in Naruto. Instead of fear, he looked sad. Sakura glanced to him as he stood up next to Sasuke. She saw how Sasuke's arm shook with acute chakra depletion, and with hers broken she couldn't do anything either. Tears of frustration leaked through her eyes.

"That's right," Naruto spoke and looked to Gaara's grin. "I was afraid of him because he's the same as me, except he did what I couldn't by remaining alone. I thought that made him strong." He crossed his fingers in his favorite seal. "But that's not what strength is. If you have nothing important to protect, nothing to fight for but yourself, you'll never experience the power of having bonds."

Chakra rolled off of Naruto in mighty waves. Sasuke blanched and wondered if what he was seeing was really Naruto. Sakura sighed as she appraised the chakra. _It's so warm… it's_ not _that chakra from earlier after all._

* * *

Hinata darted low along a group of trees as she made her way closer to the Hokage Mountain. Hanabi, as Hinata often checked, was still right behind her. In going through the village using their Byakugan to keep track of enemies, they similarly were privy to bodies of villagers and ninja, to fights among jounin and chunin, or to other fleeing residents cut down by the enemy. It hadn't been long before Hanabi was openly crying even whilst keeping a diligent watch for obstacles on the path ahead.

Hinata hoped she could hold back her own panic until they were safe. Even if Hanabi _had_ bested her in combat for the succession, Hinata was older and a registered ninja, if only seven months out of the academy. She had to keep a strong appearance, or her sister would only feel worse as they looked upon the destruction of their home.

It had been awhile, but the hidden entrance to the shelter was now within range of Hinata's vision, along with -

"Hanabi, stop," Hinata commanded. They huddled in an alcove. "There's an enemy in front of the entrance. They're… stationary. They look like a Sound chunin or equivalent."

Hanabi wiped her eyes. "W-What should we do, Hinata-nee-sama?"

Hinata kept her Byagukan on near the entrance, observing the enemy shinobi. "It looks like he doesn't know where the entrance to the shelter is. He probably saw people coming this way and intends to wait for more." _If this ninja reached this far into the village, more and more could come if we take too long, including if we try to redirect to a different entrance._ She moved her veined eyes. _It's only one enemy…_

"Hinata-nee-sama?" Hanabi whispered nervously as Hinata was quiet.

Hinata grimaced. "I'll go and fight. You stay here, Hanabi."

"If it's a chunin, I should help you, Hinata-nee-sama!" Hanabi cried, "I-I'm just as strong as you are!"

Hinata smiled. "I know you are, Hanabi, but you've never fought enemy ninja before. This fight would not be good for you."

"And _you've_ fought enemy ninja?" Hanabi burst.

"Y-yes," Hinata lied, "I have."

"...I'm going," Hanabi stamped a small foot. "I'm Hyuga and I won't let you go alone, sis."

Hinata's ears felt like they were ringing. _If the enemy knows we are Hyuga, he won't let us get close to him. We cannot use our Byakugan and disguise ourselves with Henge no Jutsu at the same time. With two we could suprise him… but Father told me to protect Hanabi. He_ trusted _me!_

Her own words were falling flat. They couldn't stay where they were until more enemies came, nor could she leave Hanabi here while she went to fight an opponent she had little chance of defeating.

"H-Hanabi, has Father taught you the Hyuga _satsujin-ken_ technique?"

Hanabi abruptly stopped her protesting. "Y-yeah," she mumbled, "I've never used it, of course…"

"I know; I haven't either," Hinata replied quietly. She hated to do this, but her plan depended on her distracting the enemy. "If you get close to him, do you think you can do it?"

"...What are you going to do?" Hanabi asked warily.

"Answer me first," Hinata said firmly.

"If… if you need me to do it, then I will," Hanabi said uneasily.

Hinata knew how unreasonable a thing she was asking of a seven-year old shinobi, and began to mentally prepare herself for what could go wrong. Hinata grabbed Hanabi's shoulders again. "H-here's what we will do. Since the enemy will see us as Hyuga, he will try to keep his distance and use weapons and ninjutsu."

Their father could catch such enemies with his superior strength and speed or use special techniques like _Kaiten_ and the Vacuum Palm. But neither of them were their father.

"We will run offensively; you will stay close behind me, like we've been doing. You're small; if he sees me coming he will most likely not notice you behind me." Hinata unzipped her jacket, where it would flap about while she ran and make herself look larger. "I have a particular ninjutsu technique. It is large, flashy and attacks from a distance; however it is not likely to hit without the enemy being incapacitated or taken by suprise, and I cannot perform it fast enough to do that."

Hanabi tilted her head in confusion, wondering what kind of technique she could be talking about.

"When I use it, the enemy will have trouble seeing anything besides avoiding it. Using your Byakugan you can get in close at that time. Do not worry, Hanabi, your taijutsu is strong, but you must not let him get away from you or our efforts will have been wasted. I will do my best to follow up and come to support you," _if anything goes wrong,_ Hinata added mentally.

"Okay, sis," Hanabi nodded stoutly, a child going to battle.

They waited behind a corner in the road. "Get ready, Hanabi," Hinata whispered. They reactivated their Byagukan.

" _Hyaaaaaa!"_ Hinata yelled as she ran towards the chunin, who jerked and looked upon the approach. Hanabi ran quietly as close behind her as possible. Her cry and her billowing jacket aided in attracting the ninja's attention like some many-colored butterfly. A higher-ranked ninja probably would have been more wary, but the Sound ninja smirked beneath his mask and unsealed a fuuma shuriken in a puff of smoke.

Still running, Hinata carefully but quickly formed her hand seals, focusing on making each one correctly. The ninja saw her hand seals and threw the shuriken, hoping to disrupt her before she finished, but Hinata stopped running upon making the tiger sign and took a huge breath.

 **Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!**

At the moment Hinata exhaled and fire appeared to block the line of sight, Hanabi dashed to the side intent on making it to the enemy from behind. Hinata knew that if Hanabi could get behind the ninja she could also reach the shelter, _but she wouldn't leave me here alone_ , she thought in both appreciation and disappointment. The force of the fireball was enough to blow the fuuma shuriken off its course. Through the chakra-enhanced wall of flame Hinata saw the ninja's eyes widen in surpise, but he moved and would have enough time to avoid it. Hinata's breath petered out and the fire crashed into the stone at the base of the mountain. As the ninja stood to the side of where he'd been he eyed Hinata more carefully and reached for his pouch of weapons.

As he pulled out a kunai Hanabi jabbed his arm from behind and he dropped it with a yelp. Hanabi yelled fiercely as she engaged the enemy shinobi in a flurry of Hyuga taijutsu. His arm hung and flopped lifelessly as he attempted to defend from the small and ferocious girl. Not knowing how to defend from the Gentle Fist, his chakra network grew more and more chaotic as Hanabi's forced itself in through her fingers. With his chakra network weakened, Hanabi could begin to go for his organs.

Hinata held her breath as she ran towards them as fast as she could. She saw the ideal moment when Hanabi forced aside the ninja's good arm. _First, a palm strike to the chest to force away the defending chakra,_ Hinata recited as Hanabi's right hand reached up and slammed into the Sound ninja's breast accordingly. _Quickly, a highly chakra-concentrated spearhand thrust with the other hand before the opposing chakra reforms,_ Hinata continued mentally. Hanabi's left arm straightened and chakra appeared visibly along the whole of her hand. It trembled, and didn't move.

 _Oh no…_ Hinata thought as Hanabi's fingers ceased and the chakra disappeared. _I knew it, Father was right, it is too much to ask of her…_

The Sound ninja had been forced back from the first strike and rebrandished his kunai, intent on driving it into Hinata's frozen sister.

Hinata's heart pounded without pain as she leapt from above between the ninja and Hanabi. Hinata swatted the wrist holding the kunai, then with her other hand thrust her palm in to his chest in the same manuever. Once again the Sound ninja's internal chakra was forced aside, this time by Hinata's. Then the hand which had forced away the kunai formed a claw. Chakra streamed out of each of her fingers. It was a different version than Hanabi's - and the one Hinata happened to be best at.

Hinata's clawed hand gripped the chest of the Sound ninja. Like elongated fingernails, the chakra lanced out and surrounded the man's beating heart. Hinata clenched her fist.

The man cried out in acute pain and his eyes crinkled. Blood bubbled from his mouth and he coughed, getting flecks on her jacket. Hinata squeezed harder and she saw the heart's beating slow, while her own pounded fiercely. She held it until it stopped.

The man went limp and flopped to the ground uselessly. Hinata's breathing made her head dizzy. She lost focus over her Byakugan and it dissipated. ' _Do not let her fight… do not…'_ Her father's words resounded through her mind. Hinata turned away from the body and reached for her sister's hand. Hanabi's wide eyes trailed the corpse of the ninja as she allowed Hinata to pull her to the shelter's hidden entrance.

Seals prevented chakra, including their Byakugan's sight, from penetrating inside the shelter, so once inside Hinata forced her Byakugan back on. She scanned the frightened citizens desperately, her mind feeling blank. She tugged Hanabi until they reached a familar pale-eyed woman.

"Hanabi-chan!" Natsu Hyuga cried as she enveloped the young girl whom she'd been charged with tending to. Hanabi clutched her attendant tightly. "Did Hinata-sama bring you here?"

Hanabi nodded into Natsu's chest. "H-Hinata-nee-sama, she…" Hanabi didn't continue and began crying. Natsu murmered soothing words to her.

Hinata mutely turned away, her breath in her throat and cold sweat running down her head.

Natsu caught sight of the blood on her jacket. "Hinata-sama?" she called out in concern as Hinata quickly stumbled away. "Kou, come here!" she heard Natsu yell for Hinata's own protector, but she ignored everyone and all but ran for one of the rooms her Byakugan had briefly seen in the shelter that had yet to fill with people.

As soon as she reached the empty chamber Hinata doubled over and vomited on the ground.

* * *

 **I felt it would be better to end this on the next scene but it would make it pretty long. The good news is I have almost half of the next chapter written out already.**

 **I toyed with all the ways a Hyuga might decisively kill someone instead of just blocking all their chakra. The 64-palm is all well and good, but aren't they supposed to go for the organs?**

 **I know you guys probably don't watch a lot of filler, but the two episodes shedding some light on Hinata and Hanabi's backstories is definitely worth a look, and was highly influential on this story as a whole.**

 **We have an important change to get to in the next chapter, so I'll get right on that.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Iggy.**


	8. Rain

The fight had been unlike any shinobi battle Sakura had ever been privy to. Trees were crushed underfoot by the massive creatures doing battle. Huge wind and water jutsu combined and nearly blew Sasuke and Sakura out of the trees in a violent maelstrom. The giant toad whom Naruto called 'boss' boomed out battle strategies to his unruly rider while the opposing sand spirit bellowed a rapturous cry as Gaara ceded control.

" **Yee-haw! I got out! I'm finally out!"** Trees snapped like twigs as the creature danced about in glee, the ground shaking.

" **So it** _ **is**_ **Shukaku the One-Tailed Tanuki,"** Gamabunta rumbled, echoing throughout the forest. **"Tailed beasts attack Konoha like clockwork don't they? Well you're gonna pay for attacking my son and my subordinate!"**

"Whatta we do, boss?" Naruto's shout could barely be heard in the distance atop the toad's head. "I heard that thing only comes out when Gaara over there sleeps!"

" **It's simple then, we need to get close and smack the kid to wake him up! We're gonna do a combo Henge no Jutsu, okay? But you need to give it enough chakra to make it solid and give it teeth and claws so I can hold on, okay? Okay!"** Without pause Gamabunta gave a giant leap towards the cackling tanuki spirit.

"What kind of battle is this?" Sakura heard Sasuke mutter to himself.

"I've read about things like this - about the old wars and stuff, when opponents with massive chakra forgo stealth attacks and just try to overwhelm the enemy, but it always resulted in massive casualties…" Sakura chattered in half-excited, half-panicked bookworm mode.

" _How?_ How does _Naruto_ have that much chakra?" Sasuke yelled in irritated reply as a low booming sound threatened to dislodge them both. A cloud of smoke appeared in the battlefield as Naruto's combined transformation manifested.

What appeared was shown in no pictures or textbooks, but whose description was no less unmistakeable. Equal in size to the other beast, a crimson fox with red-slit eyes and nine tails leapt onto Shukaku. Both Sasuke and Sakura froze at the sight.

"S-Sasuke-kun, the toad said 'Tailed Beast', didn't he?" Sakura stuttered.

"I remember - my cousin Shisui used that same term! He said there were nine of them!" Sasuke grit his teeth. "Sakura, if the Tailed Beasts were distributed by the First Hokage evenly, then which one did the Leaf get?"

"But…" Sakura gasped, "but Iruka-sensei told us that the Fourth Hokage killed the Nine-Tailed Fox thirteen years ago! I-I got a perfect score on that exam!"

"Think, Sakura," Sasuke hissed. "The One-Tailed Beast is fighting evenly with a summoned boss creature! How strong do you think the Nine-Tails is? Could anyone, even the Hokage, possibly kill such a thing?"

"But if he didn't kill it then what…" she trailed off. She turned slowly to the battlefield. The transformed fox disappeared as the toad held on tight. She could barely make out their blonde and orange teammate jumping about the two destroyers. "No…" she whispered.

" _He_ was saying it, remember? That Gaara was _like_ him?" Sasuke pulled himself to his feet. "You didn't see it, but back in the Forest of Death - his _eyes changed_ , and they looked like _that_!" He pointed to where the fox had appeared from the air.

"But - but," Sakura said desperately, "I can _feel_ that chakra, remember? It's _all_ been from Gaara, and when the One-Tail got out, I could feel it _change_ \- it was so happy to get free - and I can still feel it now. It's actually easier to deal with now that Gaara's not restraining it."

Sasuke bit his lip. He had forgotten about that. His mind gesticulated wildly, because _dammit_ nothing else made sense, trying to rationalize other theories. He stopped when Sakura's eyes suddenly grew wide and fearful.

"Wait… wait… Sasuke-kun…" His stomach jerked. "You weren't there… in his fight against Neji I-I _did_ feel it. Now that I think about it, it was - just a _little_ different from with Gaara…" Sakura looked away and clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. Suddenly she shuddered and tumbled down on the branch. She cried when her splinted arm was jostled.

Sasuke gave a pained grunt of his own as he knelt down and hoisted her good arm on his shoulder. "What happened?" he asked sternly.

Sakura did not look at him. She looked utterly defeated. "It just happened… Sasuke-kun… he's using it. I can feel them both. There are two." Her voice was just a murmur.

Sasuke looked from her to the site of the battle. He strained his eyes and activated his Sharingan for a few seconds. Two blips of red chakra appeared in place of Naruto's and Gaara's figures before he let it fade away. "I see them," he told Sakura simply. She said nothing.

Soon after, Shukaku vanished in smoke, followed by Gamambunta. That was their signal. "It's over; let's go," Sasuke told his despondent teammate. She didn't move. "Come _on_ , Sakura!" he barked. "We have to get over there!" Finally she positioned her legs on the branch and slid her arm off him, cradling her other.

They ran along the ground, not having the strength or coordination to go through the trees. Sasuke kept an eye on Sakura to make sure she wouldn't collapse on him again. Her head was down, and she noticed his glance. "The two chakra have disappeared. I feel better now," she said. Sasuke looked back to the path, only half-believing her.

When they reached the landing site Sakura saw Naruto's battered form and instinctively made for it. Sasuke held an arm in front of her first, observing what was transpiring. Like an inchworm, Naruto crawled with his chin over to where Gaara lay across from him.

"Stay back… stay back…" Gaara repeated like a mantra, his eyes cracked in some primal fear towards Naruto.

"I… understand… y'hear? I understand you so well it hurts…!" Tears and blood steamed alike down Naruto's bruised face. His forehead was a mess of split skin and was missing his Hitae-ate. "And it _really_ hurts, doesn't it…? It hurts to be hated, to be feared, to be alone because of something you can't control."

"It… hurts?" Gaara repeated. "My heart… it hurts…"

"I'm tellin' you, you can still find them, people who you can believe in, and who believe in you. They're out there. I know… you must have had them once… or it wouldn't hurt so much… You can find them again, you can! And when you do, you'll be much stronger than you are now, because you'll have to protect those people! Just like how I protected _my_ precious people today…"

Gaara was looking at Naruto like he was seeing him for the first time.

Sasuke lowered his arm, understanding so much more than before.

Sakura sank to her knees and burst into tears.

* * *

Sakura didn't say anything in the morning of the funeral. She walked numbly up to Naruto at their team's usual meeting place at the bridge. Her black skirt gave her a phantom appearance against her pale skin and vibrant hair. The only exception was the sling and cast holding her arm while it healed.

She had never seen Naruto in such dark clothes before. She wondered if Iruka-sensei had helped him get them. Neither of them exchanged words. She noted to herself that perhaps Shikamaru had been right, and the million-and-one things on her mind had overwhelmed her to the point of burnout. In less than a week, she had been kidnapped, tortured, imbued with unnatural power, trained vigorously to control it, fought in the Chunin Exam finals bearing that burden, and in short order had her home invaded, stared death in the face, and learned the horrifying truth about a teammate she'd steadily learned to get along with.

Add the Hokage's funeral on top of that, and she just wanted to hand in her headband and retire to her room forever.

But she knew that they would never let her, not with the kekkei genkai of the First Hokage.

Naruto, who'd had a track record of always bringing up her spirits, looked to be the one worst off this time, and she was in no way prepared to assist him the way he'd always done for her.

 _Lord Hokage was always nice to everyone in the village, like he was everyone's grandfather. It's hard to imagine him as one of the only shinobi to live through all three Great Ninja Wars. To Naruto, who had no one, I'm sure he was the very first person he ever looked up to. This day may be worse for him than anyone…_ Sakura watched as Naruto counted the dead leaves floating down the river. _He must have been there too during the Nine-Tails attack. Was he the one who told Naruto?_

Sakura buried her head in her remaining arm out of Naruto's sight. Since the battle in the forest she could not stop bitter memories from playing through her mind on repeat: The girl, fresh with Ino's ribbon, who'd excitedly pointed out the boy who'd played with her in the sand to her mother only to be tugged away and told sternly to stay way from him. How she'd seen Ino and the other girls tease and put him down and decided to do the same. All the times she'd smacked him in the academy and told him he was an annoying loser. The one time she'd thought one of his screw-ups looked oddly like it was done on purpose but had written it off as absurd.

Everything was suddenly in a new light. Sakura had to reevaluate everything he'd said and done. When they'd fought the snake in the forest and Naruto had gone berserk, she knew why. When she told him how he had more chakra than them but couldn't control it she knew how. How he'd been able to draw out chakra - and _who's_ chakra - after Neji had sealed his tenketsu.

However, there was so much she didn't know, and wholeheartedly believed that the only one who held all the answers she wanted was Naruto himself. The thought of approaching this - _talking_ about this to Naruto in light of all her regrets and on the day of the Hokage's funeral made her burn with shame and dread.

When Sasuke finally arrived with his hands in the pockets of black clothes of his own no one said a word. Sasuke walked right past them without looking as he headed towards the village square where the memorial would take place. After a moment, Naruto and Sakura jogged to catch up to him.

The funeral had been as long and somber as anything Sakura had known. There were tears from shinobi and civilians alike, and when rain came down it was like the heavens wished to join them. There were sermons from numerous friends and family of the Third, though Sakura noted that none of them had been his own students. She didn't know what they looked like, and had never heard of them being in the village, but none who spoke to the crowd had identified as the remaining Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade.

Iruka had been by Naruto's side throughout the duration of the funeral, and after each person placed a flower upon the grave Sasuke watched Iruka pull out cups of ramen and lead Naruto away. He grunted at Sakura and jerked his head towards them. Sakura saw, but made no move to follow. Sasuke turned away and started walking back in the direction of the Uchiha Clan district. When Sakura followed him he said nothing, waiting for her to speak.

"We have to talk to him," Sakura said eventually.

Sasuke observed her sunken eyes and the direction Iruka had taken Naruto. "Not today," he said. "This is not the time." He took her silence as agreement. He changed the subject. "Your arm?" He asked simply.

Sakura held it up. "It wasn't a bad break, but it will take longer to heal than normal. I can't get the normal number of sessions; the medics are too busy."

"Hn."

"...That day, I wrote Naruto off because he didn't have parents, and… y-you said -"

"That you were annoying," Sasuke finished immediately.

"I… I'm sorry… I'm so _, so sorry!_ " She began crying. "Y-you must have been… _disgusted_ with me… you could have said something much worse to me, and you would have been right!"

Sasuke sighed, looking for a way to resolve this. "I'm good at watching people. I always knew that Naruto was alone, but no one said anything about it. The real story - whatever it is - must have been classified, because Naruto always asked 'why'. I just assumed his parents had died in disgrace or something and no one wanted to deal with him."

"M-my mother would tell me not to go near him… I hate her…"

"Don't say that," Sasuke snapped, making Sakura flinch. He exhaled and continued. "He's on your team. Your parents let it happen. He brought you to the hospital after talking to them. Your mother's opinions can change. That's what Naruto's been trying to do all this time."

Sakura wiped her eyes.

"...My mother was always sad when she saw him, like she knew something no one else did. She told me I should be his friend, but I never listened." Sasuke did not go on. Sakura had never heard him mention his mother before.

She wiped her eyes some more and decided to change the subject. "I looked up his registration. His birthday is October tenth."

"In school birthdays would get announced," Sasuke said thoughtfully. "But Naruto's never was. We had that day off."

"...To remember the fallen on the day the Fourth Hokage gave his life to save us from the Nine-Tailed Fox," Sakura whispered. "But just what did he do? What _happened?"_

"That day is coming up soon," Sasuke said as he turned into the Uchiha District where Sakura was reluctant to follow. "Let's talk to Naruto then. And quit worrying. Naruto's the same as he's always been. He'll be fine and we'll be fine." Sasuke turned back for a moment. "Sakura, I want you to know something. If you want to keep bad things from happening to people, you need to be strong enough to do it. Stronger than anyone else, if necessary."

Sakura would for a long time come to remember how those words defined Sasuke Uchiha.

* * *

The sight of the sun's rays lengthening upon his return home always brought a small satisfaction to Sasuke. How much time he spent training or doing missions was reflected by the day's depth, and he couldn't help but take it as minute proof of his growing strength. Nearly four years ago when he'd lost his family, he struggled for months to motivate himself in learning to look after himself. The boy would lie on the tatami, dead to the world, while his stomach persistently rumbled and cobwebs built up along the dishes in his mother's sink.

Today, while he was no gourmet chef, Sasuke knew that he needed to eat and sleep well along with his training to become strong. Rice, fish, and tomatoes were the highlights of his diet. Food and sleep were but means to his end.

Well, except whenever Naruto dragged him and Sakura for ramen.

Still, today did feel different than normal. The rain had cleared up, but the day of the Hokage's funeral cast a grim air across the village. Fresh graves lined the Konoha Shinobi Graveyard, with the Hokage's decorated flame joining the monuments to the other three Hokage, all of whom had died in battle.

Sasuke wondered to himself if there were any decorated shinobi who managed to die of old age.

He stopped at the lake in the Uchiha Clan grounds and took in the familiar smell. Sasuke took his own time to remember the Third Hokage, who'd never hesitated in directing him to one jutsu scroll or another with a smile.

He opened his eyes and saw movement on the water, a flitting of dark and light colors. Golden sunbeams refracted through the droplets of water that splashed about and Sasuke made out the form of Hinata Hyuga standing poised atop the lake, still clad in her funeral clothes.

She breathed, and lashed out like a whip. For it's name, the Gentle Fist did not lack speed. Her form continuously emphasized her palms, but then suddenly she switched to her fingers the way Neji did. She made several jabs, then stopped, shaking her head. The veins around her eyes disappeared and Hinata rested.

Sasuke stepped out on the water, his chakra providing a continuous cushion against the lapping tides. Not so hard, he decided. His hands remained in the pockets of his dark pants. The glass mirror of the lake rippled at each of Sasuke and Hinata's movements. She looked up from her knees as he approached.

Hinata did not ask if he minded her being on his family's lake. She knew she did not need to. She stood up straight on top of the water easily, placed her feet and hands together, and offered a short bow in greeting.

Sasuke, having long since discarded notions of formality towards his peers, did nothing in reply. He glanced over Hinata, noting her heavy breath and the water splashed along her clothes. He saw burns on her fingers that looked fresh.

Sasuke slowly removed his hands from his pockets and brandished his right hand in a half-ram sign.

Hinata's milky eyes blinked at him in surprise. She expanded her arms and gestured to her black skirt and then to his formal clothes with a sense of exasperation.

Sasuke did not lower his hand and merely raised an eyebrow at her, as if asking what she was doing training today in the first place.

Hinata sighed and eventually moved her hand forwards in the same sign.

Sasuke's Sharingan ignited and he lunged at her without preamble. Hinata's Byakugan returned to her face and she raised her arms in defense.

Sasuke mounted a forward offense filled with punches and sharp kicks. He leaped, elbowed, and kneed aggressively, pressing Hinata into a retreat intent on making her lose her footing on the water. Hinata winced and grit her teeth, noting from the developing bruises on her blocking arms that he was intent on using full contact. What offense she could muster in return was blocked at the arm or knee, without letting her palms connect. Even against the arms, the Gentle Fist could still penetrate. His red eyes darted and flashed, like threading a needle through her taijutsu form.

Hinata waited and then shoved her stance forward into one of Sasuke's attacks pushing him back long enough long enough for her to thrust both palms to his stomach. She knew that he could tell she was right-handed and would expect her to strike with it first. Instead, she jabbed with her left. Slowly, his eyes began to follow her left strike, and he raised his hand to block it. At the same time, her right hand thrust at the opposite side of his line of sight with as much speed as she could. Chakra lanced into his shoulder at the moment of contact, but he grunted and leaped back. She had not expected him to react in time to avoid most of the damage.

Before he could mount another attack she sprinted forward across the water. Normally she would have coordinated her attacks in an even, alternating fashion, but instead Hinata used her limbs simultaneously in attempts of deceiving his Sharingan. As Sasuke's eyes dashed from one strike to the next he began to respond to her strikes at seemingly the same time she made them, but they were always different. If she thrust her right arm he would use his left knee, and his punches were always when she moved a leg forward.

Without giving anything away in her attack pattern, Hinata thrust a palm strike and for the first time moved a leg to kick at his ankle and dislodge his footing. Sasuke shifted his leg with a surge of chakra, moving the rest of his body and causing her palm to land on his upper arm. He winced at the impact on his chakra, but his movement had again avoided greater damage.

To Hinata, it was still her biggest opportunity. _I'll strike him now and end this!_

Sasuke disappeared.

 _Kawarimi?_ Hinata stumbled and reflexively widened her Byakugan, as if zooming out from the air. _No, Shunshin no Jutsu! He let me hit him on purpose so I would overextend!_

Sasuke's kick from behind was seen and halted by Hinata's chakra just in time. She released the chakra holding his foot and Sasuke's eyes widened.

Before her arms could reach him he righted himself and jumped away. _Guess the Byakugan really can see anywhere. And that chakra emission isn't something normal shinobi can do either._

 _So fast!_ she thought. _He's been going slower than he really is the entire time…_ Hinata's mind briefly flashed to his appearance in the Chunin Exam against Gaara. _I saw before, I should have known what he was doing…_ She saw that Sasuke had jumped high and far away from her, and would be in the air long enough to hit with a projectile. She began making seals.

Upside-down, Sasuke saw her seals through the Sharingan and smirked. He moved his hands in the same pattern.

Sasuke had started his hand seals before Hinata but finished first. Hinata felt a trickle of panic down her spine.

 **Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!**

A great ball of fire roared towards Hinata and Sasuke vanished behind it. Hinata's eyes throbbed painfully as she struggled to see him through the wall of flame and finish her own fireball. Sasuke's was almost upon her when she exhaled and blasted it with her own fire. The air sizzled around her and made her eyes water heavily. As the pressure of the fire whiffed Hinata fell to a knee on the water. She was exhausted.

Hinata did not find Sasuke in her sight until small fireballs appeared from her flank.

 **Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!**

From her crouch Hinata gathered up as much chakra as she could in her hand and blasted the water below. The small fireballs hissed and raised columns of steam as they hit the rudimentary wall of water she'd made. It was barely enough to stop the attack. Hinata began to get to her feet but the steam parted and seamlessly, Sasuke appeared before her once again. Before she could blink the tip of his hand was at her throat and a tiny spark of lightning at the end reminded her that he had a new technique.

Had this been a real fight, she would be stuck on his Chidori right here. In other words, their spar was over. She relaxed on the water and lowered her head, signaling defeat.

Sasuke withdrew his arm.

Hinata panted as she stood up, her arms and legs throbbing with bruises and exertion. She looked up to Sasuke and held out two fingers to him.

Sasuke eyed them for a moment, reminded of something that had happened long in the past. Still, he returned her gesture, and their fingers grasped in the traditional Unison Sign.

Hinata smiled to herself. Hyuga spars never used the Unison Sign. Of course, what Sasuke considered a spar had been comparable to her fight against the Sound Ninja. At the thought, Hinata looked away, and frowned.

Sasuke tilted his head, considering her reaction.

After the fight Sasuke and Hinata sat back on the shore, watching the sun set on the other side of the trees. Sasuke crouched with one leg out and an arm draped on his other knee. Hinata lay on her back next to him, hands laced across her stomach as she recovered energy. Sasuke had asked what had brought her out to the lake, and so Hinata had told him what was on her mind.

"…I killed him, Sasuke-kun," Hinata whispered. "With my own hands, and the technique my father taught me… I crushed his beating heart." Hinata rolled to the side facing away from him and curled up into herself.

"...Do you think what you did was wrong?" Sasuke said carefully, having listened to her story.

"No. If I had not, either Hanabi would bear this burden in my place, or we may both be dead. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"I've wondered… If I had been stronger, could I have done something differently? Something besides killing my opponent."

Sasuke picked at the grass. "Hinata," he asked after a moment, "why is it you train so hard? Why do you want to change yourself so badly, that you would do as Naruto does? What is your _goal?_ " This time he did not ask something he could answer himself. He wanted to know.

Hinata was quiet. She unfurled herself and sat up, her pearl eyes blotched. "Um… well, w-when I was young, I used to tell people that… that my dream was to be a ninja who was both… strong like Father, and kind like Mother." She looked embarrassed, as if the idea was laughable.

Indeed, Sasuke thought, she'd probably spent her entire life being told just that. He gave a little scoff.

Hinata waved her hands at him, suddenly frantic. "I-I know it was just naivete, a-and I didn't know any better because I was a child, but-"

"No," Sasuke interrupted. "If you spend so much time listening to everyone around you spout the same thing, you'll too soon be convinced of it. Don't be convinced. The majority can be wrong just as easily as a single person can."

"W-What do you mean, Sasuke-kun?"

"You're still thinking about it wrong. When iron sand is scooped off the ground, it is no threat. The sand is collected and placed in a furnace. The heat melts and breaks it apart. Slowly, undesirable components are removed from it. Then it gets struck, hammered down until it either becomes harder or it cracks under the pressure. Then, it gets melted down again. And hammered again. Over, and over. Until it becomes a sword."

Hinata stared at him, unblinkingly, as she listened to each word.

"A ninja who is great in both power and kindness," Sasuke continued. "As you just said, those two things are a natural contradiction. But that just makes it difficult. Shying away from what is difficult is not the ninja way. If you go on training as hard as you can and stay kind to everyone you meet, you too will be forged like that sword. That contradiction is the true value, the only way to become something extraordinary. If you succeed, you'll have done something no other ninja has."

Hinata rubbed at her eyes, and suddenly Sasuke felt very awkward. "T-Then do you r-really think I could do it?"

"I don't know," Sasuke sighed. "It sounds as absurd to me as it no doubt does to your family. But even if everyone says it can't be done, only you can decide if it actually is. So don't pay attention to them, or to me for that matter."

"I-I… Sasuke-kun, no one's ever said anything like that to me before..."

"Naruto would tell you the same thing, if you ever bothered to talk to him. Though I doubt he'd be any good at explaining it..."

Hinata went scarlet. "W-W-With Naruto-kun? N-No way! I could never…!"

While Hinata calmed down Sasuke went back to watching the water. The sun had vanished, and the remaining light was rapidly fading.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun," Hinata spoke up again. "Have… _you_ ever k-killed anyone?"

Sasuke's fist tore the grass out of the ground. "...No. There's only one person I want to kill. And I will, no matter what it takes."

Hinata's eyes widened and she slowly placed a hand over her mouth.

"Remember, Hinata. Your sister may have gotten the talent, the support of the clan, and the attention of your father. But even so, _you_ are the older sibling, and it's your job to protect her. _That_ is what you did. That and nothing more."

Hinata watched his dark eyes, half-hidden in shadow, smolder through her towards something far ahead, in the future and beyond the village walls.

Sasuke said nothing further, but got up and walked slowly into the darkness towards his empty home.

Tears welled up again in Hinata's eyes as she watched him leave. _How terrible does it feel? What could it be like to lose your father, your mother? Your whole family, all in one night, all to the older brother you looked up to so much?_ Hinata, as the heir-apparent to another of the Four Noble clans and trained to observe her surroundings the same as the Uchiha, had seen for herself the mysterious and revered Itachi Uchiha walk through the village comfortably with a grinning boy clutching his hand. The Sasuke and Itachi of the past. _Hanabi is almost as old as Sasuke-kun was back then… and_ I'm _almost as old as Itachi-san was. I can't imagine it! I can't…!_

Eventually, Hinata, too, got back up and walked in the opposite direction towards her family home.

* * *

 **Ooo, I love writing these two so much.**

 **We're going to basically follow the same track as in canon until the time-skip, but I do want to make some important additions. For plot reasons further down the line, I want to write in that mission in Waterfall from the seldom-watched OVA, with some changes, not the least of which is when it's supposed to take place (originally it was before the Chunin Exams). In addition to plot significance – and it turns out Waterfall is convenient for a number of reasons – I think it's very important to show (and not tell) how** _ **good**_ **Team Seven was before everything went to shit. To that end, we have to squeeze this in before Sasuke meets Itachi again. Let me reiterate that before this event, Sasuke was making major signs of improvement in his attitude. We need to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all interacting with each other positively. We need to see that each of them has a good, beneficial relationship with the other or else any of the drama that follows after rings hollow. As a part of that, Sakura needs to reign in her fangirl tendencies at least a little, she needs to befriend Naruto, Naruto needs to learn how to show affection, Sasuke needs to** _ **have**_ **affection, and they have to be a complete team instead of Naruto + Sasuke the book, the movie, incorporated.**

 **Also yeah, I think having Sakura and Sasuke be in the Naruto loop is a big part of this. Not quite sure what to make of Hinata being in the loop or not. And hey, back in the day me and everyone else ate up all those stories along the lines of 'X finds out about Kyubi'.**

 **Also what's this? Danzo is up to no good again? IS THE SKY BLUE? Find out next time.**

 **~Iggy**


	9. Sunbeam

Fall came full swing as the multitude of leaves in the Hidden Leaf Village underwent their annual coloring. Business owners grumbled as they swept them off the streets, a task normally given as D-rank missions, but this year all genin and many of the chunin were kept on standby as on-the-books missions met a standstill without a Hokage to administer them. Jounin and chunin in high standing, meanwhile, were taking missions at their own discretion, in whatever means they felt benefited the village until Konoha could get back on its feet.

The auspicious day of October tenth had arrived. Memorials were held on the village cemeteries, the Academy closed it's doors for the day, and repairs on the village structures damaged in the invasion were put on hold. It was still morning, and Sakura nervously approached the kitchen where her mother cleaned up after breakfast and her father attempted to amuse her with bad jokes.

"Aw I thought that one was pretty funny, honey, haha - get it?" Kizashi laughed.

"You're about as funny as a Hyuga, dear," Mebuki shot back.

"Um – Mom, Dad..." Sakura spoke up.

"Yeah flower blossom?" Kizashi looked over.

Sakura furrowed her brow at his tired nickname, but continued. "Uh, you know what today is, right?"

"Of course we do!" Mebuki said snippily. "You weren't even seven months old during the Attack of the Nine-Tails. You cried all the way to the shelter and every time the fox roared or snapped buildings like twigs."

"We were lucky, and we'll always remember that on this day," Kizashi added.

Sakura gulped. "W-well, it's Naruto's birthday, and – I want to do something nice for him!"

Mebuki stopped washing her plate. Kizashi blinked at his daughter, and then turned to his wife with concern.

"I know. Sasuke-kun and I figured it out while we were fighting in the invasion." Sakura said boldly.

Eventually, Mebuki turned around. "Sakura, be careful. Sandaime-sama may be gone, but his law still forbids talk of that."

"So there _is_ a law," Sakura said bitterly.

"Sweetie, I think it's _great_ you want do something for him, - I do! - but what do you need to ask us?" Kizashi said, clasping his hands.

Sakura had suspected this from her father – she'd never heard him utter a mean word about anybody – but she knew he was also deep under her mother's heel. Sakura had never taken him very seriously because of that.

She looked over; Mebuki had a frown on her face. Sakura pressed on. "I want to invite him – and the rest of the team – over for dinner."

Kizashi turned to Mebuki again. "Well, it's fine with me - "

"Of course it is," Mebuki said tiredly and crossed her arms. She looked carefully at her daughter.

Sakura responded by narrowing her eyes fiercely. She would _not_ tolerate the village's attitude to Naruto anymore.

Mebuki looked back pensively, then turned back to her dishes. "Well, I need to thank him anyway for what he did before the exams – taking you to the hospital and all – and he tried so hard to impress me… although -" Sakura took a breath "- I wish you had told me sooner, it will be hard to find a cake today."

Sakura gasped and ran up to her mother. She latched on to her from behind, tears leaking into her dress.

"Really, Sakura, I just washed this dress – now let me off so I can start getting everything ready."

Sakura's green eyes glistened as she looked up at her mother's identical ones. "Are… you really okay with this?"

"Well dear, I can talk all I want, but you'll never know just how terrible that day thirteen years ago was." Mebuki said to her. "I can see that I was wrong – but this is going to take time to get through. I'll do my best tonight, okay?" Mebuki sighed. "Now then – both your teammates and your sensei too?"

"Oh, um – I forgot, Kakashi-sensei has been on missions almost constantly, so I don't think he's even here right now."

"Two extra mouths then," Mebuki said primly.

Sakura hugged her again then quickly left her house to find her teammates.

* * *

She waited at the bridge for Sasuke as per their unspoken agreement. There had been no plans for the team today, so Naruto would not be there. Today was also the day they would confront Naruto about their new-found knowledge, so she needed to talk with Sasuke about what they were going to do. Sakura also wanted to tell the rest of their classmates about the Wood Style, something Shikamaru and Ino would help out with.

When Sasuke appeared at the bridge, he was not alone.

"Oh – Hinata-chan!" Sakura exclaimed. "You're with..." she trailed off. Something in her ground to a halt.

Sasuke paid no heed to either Sakura's query or to Hinata walking beside him without a care in the world.

Hinata paused at Sakura, and then shook her head and spoke quickly. "Oh, no – S-Sasuke-kun has just been helping me train my fire-type chakra! A-After all, the Uchiha Clan has the greatest knowledge and breadth of fire style techniques… they're named after 'the fan that controls the flames' after all… and I want to learn some techniques outside the Hyuga Clan – I'm very grateful..."

The fan that controls the flames? Sakura wanted to smack her massive forehead. She had never realized that after all the reading she'd done. But then, the library hadn't had much on the Uchiha Clan.

"Wow, you have fire-type chakra, Hinata-chan? That's so cool, and after seeing how you fought in the exams, I think it suits you!"

Hinata blushed brightly. "O-oh, um… you think so…?"

"Sure! You're training then? Is your chest feeling better?" Sakura said warmly.

This time, Sasuke did look to Hinata with a note of interest. He was also curious about this.

"Yes, well… I wasn't allowed to do physical training for awhile because I was recovering, and actually during the finals… I got upset while watching Neji-niisan and Naruto-kun fight and my internal wounds reopened..."

"Oh no..."

"An ANBU medic was there though, he was amazing, after he was done I was almost back to normal, they found later in an examination."

"An ANBU medic? I wonder if that's the same one I talked to there… wow, medical ninja are really cool."

"U-Um, I've heard that to be a medical ninja you need very good chakra control, I bet _you_ could become one, Sakura-chan," Hinata said.

"Me?" Sakura thought about it. She _did_ have chakra control. But she also had the Wood Style. If she hadn't been the victim of it, she could definitely see herself becoming a medical ninja.

Now, she just didn't know.

"Well… it might be something I'll think about, but I've got too much else to focus on right now."

At this reminder, Sasuke decided to step in. "We'd better go find Naruto."

"Oh yeah, Hinata-chan, could you come to the Academy park this afternoon? I want to tell everyone in our class what happened to me in the arena."

Hinata looked inquisitive, but nodded. "Um… if you're looking for Naruto-kun, he's probably at the Hokage Mountain. He likes to go there on this day, because well -" She stopped talking, clamming her mouth shut.

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked at her carefully, following the same train of thought.

Sasuke got to it first. "...Hinata, do you know about him?"

Hinata blinked, and startlingly Sakura saw her eyes narrow at them. "...Do you?"

"I saw the chakra with my eyes during the invasion," Sasuke said, undaunted. "And Sakura's… new jutsu can also sense it."

"Y-yeah," Sakura said, watching Hinata's eyes for the veins of the Byakugan activating, the intimidation heightening her senses. "He also used it against Neji. I – I don't want to see the village treat him like they do, anymore."

Hinata's face grew embarrassed. "O-oh. I see, I must have been unconscious then… Then that's how Naruto-kun won after Neji-niisan used _that_ technique."

"What technique was it?"

"Oh – you weren't there, Sasuke-kun. It was a secret technique to seal all of the main tenketsu in succession. Most people would not be able to release any chakra afterward."

"He used a technique like that even though he's a branch member?"

"You know about the main family techniques?"

"Only what my father used to tell me."

Sakura looked between them apprehensively as they apparently forgot about her.

"W-well… I don't know either. He also used the Kaiten technique too. I've never even seen them myself."

"He figured them out by himself – without even seeing them, probably. Maybe I _should_ go fight him sometime."

"How did you learn about, um, _that_ with Naruto, Hinata-chan?" Sakura interjected.

Hinata looked embarrassed again. What was up with that? "I-I accidentally overheard someone say 'Kyubi' once. Later, in school, I went from there, but I wouldn't say I know anything else. Ah, please be careful… I think there's definitely a law of some kind..."

"There is, my parents told me. We'll be careful."

Sasuke gave a snort. "Seems counterproductive at this point."

Hinata gave a small smile. "Naruto-kun likes to go on top of Yondaime-sama's face. I know Naruto-kun doesn't resent him for what he did, if anything he looks up to him, which I think is really great of him..."

"The Fourth's time in power was brief," Sasuke noted, "but he's always been called the greatest hero this village has ever known. I'm sure that's good enough for Naruto, even after he knew the truth."

"We'll go look for him there, thanks Hinata-chan. Let's not be strangers, okay?"

It was slight, but Sakura saw the happiness in Hinata's face at that. "Okay, um, Sakura-chan. I-I'll see you soon at the park."

As Sakura and Sasuke kept a moderate pace for the Hokages' stone faces Sakura's mood grew more optimistic. "Hinata has good eyes – I bet she knows a lot of other stuff about the village too. And she's nice, I should have gotten to know her sooner."

"What makes you think she knows so much?" Sasuke replied.

"I mean, she knows that Naruto goes to such an out-of-the-way place? You know, maybe we should invite her for our talk with Naruto."

"I wouldn't, she's basically non-functional in his presence. Best let her do it at her own pace."

"What do you mean?"

"She likes him," Sasuke said bluntly.

"...Huh?" Sakura stopped walking.

* * *

"You seriously couldn't tell?" Sasuke said, exasperated.

Sakura had been quiet for awhile on their way up the mountain as she'd mulled over Hinata's feelings. Though they could have scaled it directly, which Naruto in his endless energy had probably done, both of them wanted time to think about what they might say to him. They were almost to the Fourth's mane when they resumed conversation, and Sasuke for his part had been grateful for the silence.

"I, um… I had my attention on other things in the academy… and Hinata-chan never talked to anyone..." Sakura said meekly. "I wonder if Ino knew?"

"Probably. She's nosy like that," Sasuke said shortly.

"It's so cute though!" Sakura suddenly said gleefully.

"Is it?"

"Yeah! We should give them a push! I think they would be great!"

"Leave me out of this."

"Sasuke-kun, don't be such a pill!"

Sakura immediately clapped a hand to her mouth and looked at him in fear for her rudeness.

Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow at her and smirked lightly at her cheek. "Like I said, Hinata's got a long way to go before she can handle asking out Naruto. She can't even talk to him. The mere thought makes her behave irrationally. And then there's Naruto. If you never noticed what makes you think he will? If she grew a spine now, would he even know what to do? Naruto's never even had friends or family, does he really know what a relationship is? Neither of them could handle this responsibly."

Sakura was looking at him like she'd never seen him before.

"They're too young for this. They've got their ninja careers to worry about, dreams that are important to them, not to mention staying alive. Maybe afterward they can manage to do something about this, but right now you should stay out of it. You'll make problems."

"...Is that how you feel too?" Sakura said very quietly.

Sasuke pretended he hadn't heard her over the wind. "It's time; get ready."

True to Hinata's word, Naruto was sitting cross-legged on top of the visage of the Fourth Hokage, the one whom had – somehow – sealed the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon into him when he was born at the cost of his life. He didn't hear their approach as the wind waved around him as he watched the villagers below.

Sakura was quiet again, to Sasuke's consternation. He spoke up. "Oi."

Naruto jerked and turned around. His shadowed eyes quickly rose up into a normal expression Sasuke easily saw through.

"Oh. What's up guys? You uh… wanna train or somethin'?"

"Not today," Sasuke said shortly. His eyes shifted to Sakura again, but she continued to say nothing and did not look at Naruto. It was up to him then. "We need to talk about something."

Naruto betrayed nothing, to anyone except Sasuke. "What?"

"Remember how Sakura's Wood Style reacted to Gaara's chakra? That goes for you too, birthday boy."

Naruto's eyes went from shock to steel. His limbs jerked and entered full fight-or-flight. In his mind, he flashed to the few times the villagers and some shinobi had enough courage to let him know their thoughts on him physically, often on this very day.

The image stood still to Sakura. At the same time Naruto rose to leap off the mountain, she dashed forth at top speed. "Naruto – wait, please -"

Naruto froze the instant Sakura latched on to him with all her might, abandoning any fight in him. Sasuke remained where he was.

"N-Naruto, _listen_ to me -" Sakura said, already crying. "Life's been _hard_ for you, harder than I could ever know. R-right? And all this time, I've been so _mean_ to you. I only saw how everyone treated you… and I did the same because I wanted to make _friends_. But… but _you_ wanted friends too! Please, I'm _sorry_ Naruto, please..."

Sakura cried into his shoulder from behind but held fast. The air was met with only her soft sobs and the reverberations of the wind. The duration stretched on and Sakura felt a new kind of fear, a new hopelessness that Naruto, her friend, had given up on her.

Naruto's hand shook as it slowly reached over one of hers. "I… I _did_ want friends. I wanted them more than anything. I wanted somebody, _anybody._ "

Sakura swiftly whirled him around. "You have them. You have _us_ , forever, Naruto."

Naruto's face dropped into her shoulder. He furiously stifled choking, brackish sobs. "D-Dammit, I _hate_ c-cryin'..."

"It's fine… it's fine..."

Sasuke closed his eyes and listened to them scale down in noise until he was satisfied. Inwardly, he was thankful that Sakura had jumped in, since it meant he didn't have to do anything else. He walked up behind them.

Naruto lifted his head and looked at him carefully with watery blue eyes. Sasuke met them.

"Don't think this changes anything. You're not gonna beat me just because you have your own personal chakra battery," Sasuke said loftily as he held out his fist.

Finally, Naruto grinned, and rather harshly met his knuckles to Sasuke's. "Heh, like I need some damn fox to beat _you_."

Sakura released Naruto. " _Geez_ , why can't you two just be normal friends!?" she cried out.

* * *

"And… and that's what happened. So now I can use Wood Style jutsu," Sakura finished to the small group gathered outside the academy. Sakura sat on the swing while Sasuke leaned against the tree. Naruto stood next to Sakura, eying their class protectively while Sakura had told the story.

Ino, having already known, looked desperately like she wanted to say something, but Sakura had not noticed.

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his head. "That's gonna be a _really_ troublesome thing for you to carry going forward. Sorry to hear that."

Chouji nodded vigorously through his potato chips. "You're gonna need to eat plenty to be able to use that. Have some of these." He offered her his bag, which Naruto snatched and inspected before handing it over. Sakura gave Naruto a funny look in reply. "It's fine, Shikamaru will know what to do. Leave it to him," Chouji finished.

"Uh, actually, if you didn't leave anything to me at all, that would be great..."

Ino smacked his arm.

Kiba let out a sort of howl. "Let's throw down! I gotta see this awesomeness for myself!"

Hinata uncharacteristically shoved him aside. "W-what Kiba-kun means is he'll support your efforts. W-we're all comrades, after all." She looked at Sakura resolutely. "Um… m-me too! I'll train harder so you can count on me!"

Sakura offered her a smile. Hinata really was a great person.

"It is said that the Aburame joined the First Hokage because he offered to use his unique jutsu to make flowers for our pollinating insects. The Senju were our close allies since then. I would be interested to see if our techniques could work together in the future." Shino said rather clinically, nudging his spectacles.

"You guys are the best..." Sakura said as she politely indulged the potato chips.

Eventually their mingling dispersed until Ino and Hinata were left.

"Um, Sakura-chan, if you like I can ask Neji-nii-san to tell his team about this too."

Sakura was startled as she remembered the two's horrible battle. "Oh, please, I won't make you talk to him, Hinata-chan."

"I-It's okay, Sakura-chan, actually, since the finals, my father's been training with him one-on-one a lot, and his… eyes are a lot calmer. It makes me happy."

Sakura looked skeptical and turned to Naruto. He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up as if to say 'I told you so'.

"If you say so, Hinata-chan, then please feel free."

Hinata smiled and nodded, followed Naruto's thumbs-up, blushed, and scurried off.

Sakura watched her leave curiously. _I guess it's true then…_

Bright blonde hair swept her vision momentarily. Ino held a funny look on her face and avoided Sakura's eyes.

"Ino?"

"I'm still not gonna lose to you!" she burst, making Sakura lean backwards. "Use your Wood Style all you want the next time we fight, okay? Promise?"

"Y-yeah."

Ino finally looked at her once then also ran off. Sasuke trailed her and snorted in disappointment as he recalled Sakura's criticism of his and Naruto's relationship. _This is foolishness. They're not like they were before at all. Well, whatever. It's none of my business._

Sakura stood up from the swing and clapped her hands happily. "It's getting late now, so let's get over to my house. By the way, Naruto, you're hereby invited for dinner."

"Eh~?" Naruto gasped at her. "B-But Sakura-chan, I dunno if that's okay…"

"I've already talked to my parents, it'll be fine, I promise."

"It's not that – I need to, like, prepare my heart for it, y'know?"

"Your what?"

"U-uh, well -"

"I'm not taking no for an answer. Let me do this, Naruto!"

Sasuke tuned them out. It had been a day full of loud, emotional people, and it wasn't over yet.

* * *

Naruto gazed up at the imposing wooden door, seemingly towering over him. The streets were well-lit in the evening air, unlike in his own neighborhood. There was a family feeling of repose, dinner time and wood-burning stoves. Naruto gulped at the handle, but Sakura edged past him and opened it. Sasuke followed her into the house and they took off their sandals. Naruto copied them. The hardwood floor was colder than the scratchy carpet he had. Sakura led her teammates into the kitchen, where the blonde Mebuki and the rose-haired Kizashi lay in wait.

Mebuki placed food on the table with her back turned to the door, and Kizashi saw them first. "Oh me oh my, good evening there!" He called out in mock-surprise.

Mebuki turned around swiftly. "Sakura, you're late. I thought you'd be back sooner so I could ask you what kind of food your teammates like. I'm told young men eat ravenously." She eyed Sakura reproachfully.

Sakura gave a small scowl. "I – we had some important stuff to do!"

Mebuki looked to Naruto and Sasuke. "Well then, what'll it be, boys?"

Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke with their mouths open wide as he gave a short bow. "Nothing sweet for me, thank you for having us." Sasuke's hand rose smoothly and jerked Naruto's head down with him.

"Ack-gack, what the hell – uh, I mean..." Naruto stiffly flattened his hands by his sides. "Uh, I've never had much besides ramen, so er – I'll eat whatever you have, believe it!"

"It'll be good, I promise!" Kizashi yelled from the table.

Mebuki ignored him. She pinched Naruto's cheek. "Ramen you say? That's no good! Look at how short you are! You need your vegetables!"

Sakura palmed her forehead, whether at Naruto or her mother it was hard to tell.

Naruto rubbed at the aching spot. "You mean those green things? That's what Hokage-jichan always said too, but every time I got some they just turned rotten."

"That's what makes them good to eat! Food that's bad for you will keep forever, and you have to eat them while you can! You'll be having a salad first. It'll make you grow up smart." She went back to the table, where a variety of home cooked dishes lay about.

Naruto continued to hold his cheek while he looked quickly from Mebuki to the food on the table. Sakura's pink hair gripped his vision as she somewhat grumpily took a seat across from her parents. His eyes misted over.

Naruto and Sasuke took seats on either side of Sakura. Plates, chopsticks, and forks were already in place. The tablecloth was brightly patterned and a vase of live flowers sat in the middle. Naruto thumbed at the table cloth in fascination. He gazed across the kitchen brazenly, and tested the cushion on the chair. Sasuke nonchalantly knocked Naruto's elbow off the table.

Kizashi leaned over. "Hey, you two wanna hear a joke?" He whispered.

"Dad, please, no," Sakura moaned.

His expression morphed to serious. "What do you call… a can opener that doesn't work?"

"Hmm..." Naruto matched his expression, folded his arms, and scratched his head. "I haven't heard this one before."

Sasuke stared straight ahead. Naruto looked over. "Do you know the answer, Sasuke?"

He stared harder at nothing.

"Do you give up?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and also folded his arms, refusing to acknowledge either of them.

Kizashi raised a finger. "A _can't_ opener!"

There was a _thump_ as Sakura's head fell to the table.

Kizashi continued to entertain them throughout dinner. Every few minutes Mebuki would bark at him to finish his food. Sakura was too mortified to eat more than a small plate. Sasuke had said little but politely cleaned his plate after being offered everything but the honeyed fruits. To no one's knowledge, he carefully stole all the tomatoes off of Naruto's salad. Naruto, true to his word, devoured what ever was put in front of him. He loudly traded humor anecdotes with Kizashi, going so far as to compare techniques with him. Sakura sometimes told him to chew and swallow his food before talking.

"Y'know, that stuff that goes on the salad was pretty great!" Naruto grinned as Mebuki took the plates to the sink.

"That's because _salad dressing_ has everything you like, Naruto – salt and fat," Sakura reprimanded.

"It's possible the fox is able to turn what you eat into additional chakra," Sasuke theorized as he helped himself to extra tomatoes.

Sakura watched this closely. "Isn't that the technique of the Akimichi Clan?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied. "They use it the most, but I think the Senju also had a variant, along with just about every other technique. If they used a lot of chakra, the fastest way to get it back was to eat a lot of food."

"I knew that fox was up to no good after we made that deal, he's been swindlin' me all along," Naruto laughed.

"You – you _talked_ to it?" Sakura said in a high voice.

"Oh, yeah. While you were in the hospital. I told him he had to pay rent for livin' in my stomach, so now he gives me some of his chakra if I ask." Naruto said flippantly.

"R-R- _Rent_? You told the most powerful Tailed Beast – who killed the _Fourth Hokage_ -" Sakura swayed.

"I dunno, he seemed to find it funny, actually. He tried to swipe at me from behind this big cage too, you should see it. Like a cat to a mouse."

Mebuki placed a glass in the sink slightly harder than necessary. Kizashi guffawed loudly.

Sasuke scratched his eyebrows. "Naruto, if we all die because of this, I'm coming for you."

"If that ever happens – I'll let you."

"Now for the final touch," Mabuki announced. She took a plate with a lone slice of chocolate cake and a small candle on top from behind a standing fern and set it in front of Naruto.

Naruto stared, "W… What is this?"

"Oh it's nothing much, afraid it was the best I could find." Mebuki knelt down and looked at him hard. "Thank you, Naruto-kun, for finding my daughter and taking her to be treated. And happy birthday."

Kizashi gave him a thumbs up.

Bewildered, he looked to Sakura and Sasuke.

"Yeah, happy birthday, Naruto," Sakura smiled.

Sasuke just nodded at him.

Eyes wide, tears slid down his cheeks. "H-Huh? Aw man, not again… gotta be th' smoke…"

After Sakura rubbed his shoulder, he shook his head and wolfed down his first cake.

"Um, Sasuke-kun, I've never seen you speak so politely before," Sakura timidly brought up after Naruto had finished.

"They're your parents," Sasuke said, as if it explained everything. "What would you do if Naruto's parents suddenly appeared and introduced themselves?"

"My, Sasuke-kun, you're a man after my own heart!" Mebuki waved him off.

"What're you guys talking about?" Naruto said, swallowing his last mouthful. "If they're my parents, I doubt they'd care."

"Oh… I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible," Mebuki suddenly said solemnly. "I'm almost certain they both died on this night."

"Haruno-obasan, did you… know them?" Naruto said tentatively.

"Well," Kizashi thumbed his chin. "The whole thing was kept real hush-hush for some reason, but I think it's pretty obvious who your mother was."

"R-really?"

"That's right," Mebuki replied. "Name was Uzumaki, and had _quite_ the attitude. No one else it could have been. What was her given name?"

Naruto's eyes rounded, his imagination running wild.

"Ah, I know this… Kushina!" Kizashi palmed his fist in realization. "Yeah, Kushina Uzumaki was a real _fox_! Pun totally intended, by the way."

Mebuki gave his head a smack.

"No for real though," Kizashi continued. "She loved to fight and to mess with people. She liked ramen too. Huh, uncanny. She's not too hard to remember – a real beauty, long red hair and blue eyes. Probably won't find any pictures in records, a shame. I had her in my class, but she quickly got ahead once she became a ninja. Imagine what I could have been if I'd stuck with the ninja life, haha!"

"I'm sure we'd do as well not to, dear." Mebuki shook her head. "Yes, Kushina Uzumaki was definitely your mother. Seems no one's told you for the same reason that her pregnancy and husband's identity were kept secret, whatever that may be."

"Her husband…?" Naruto said faintly. Sakura looked at him in concern. "If no one knew… was she even married?"

"Oh yes," Mebuki said shortly, "but whoever he was was known only to the uppermost ranks in the village. It wasn't unusual, Kushina's entire life was shrouded in secrecy, some kind of kekkei genkai during wartime. _Ninja_ , honestly. You probably didn't inherit that, or you'd have been in the same boat. I'm certain she was married, though. Kushina was strong-willed and morally upstanding. She'd have _never_ settled for some deadbeat. Bet he was blonde, looking at you."

Naruto's lip trembled. "Then… then they were -"

"They were good people who loved you, Naruto. Mark my words." Kizashi said warmly.

* * *

"Therefore," Jiraiya boomed, "I will be temporarily administering all missions! Does anyone object to this?" His beady eyes flanked the smattering of jounin, clan heads, and advisers in attendance.

"Jiraiya-sama! May I ask why you are not assuming the role of Hokage in this time of need?" Gai shouted conspicuously.

"You may! Here it is: upon being granted the title of Hokage, my first decree shall be a change in the standard uniform!"

"OOO! Our uniforms, sir!?"

"Indeed! All ranking kunoichi shall be required to wear… tiny miniskirts!" Jiraiya grandly spread his arms before the shinobi population.

"I hereby object to the passing of the title of Hokage to Jiraiya-sama!" a female ANBU captain yelled from the rear. Other kunoichi nodded, though Anko took an elbowing from Kurenai to do so.

"And there you have it, Gai," Jiraiya said solemnly. "That is why I cannot be Hokage."

The audience digested this event.

"Let's be real everyone," Jiraiya began evenly. "I'd be no good as Hokage. I've got too much to do outside the village, things no one else can handle. I can't be trapped behind a damn desk all day. But I've got a plan: Tsunade."

Gai appeared to jump a few feet in the air. "You truly mean to have Tsunade-sama return to the village after all these years, sir!? My ailing student would be eternally grateful!"

"It'll be a hard sell. I know better than anyone why she decided to leave. But if anyone can find her and get her to come back, it's me. I'm sure you all can picture it – the granddaughter of the First Hokage? The princess of the village with the bossy attitude? Let's face it, she's ideal. I will be leaving on a mission of my own to find her and convince her."

The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Before I do, I need to stay here long enough to _make sure_ -" Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at an unseen corner of the room where Danzo sat in attendance, "-that the Hokage position is not compromised in my brief absence. Dismissed."

After the meeting, Danzo's attending ANBU was given permission to discuss the matter. "Danzo-sama, I have my doubts about Jiraiya-sama as a ninja capable of leading the village in your place at the moment."

"Do not be fooled, Tanuki," Danzo hissed. "You are too young to know his days of service. Jiraiya has completed nearly two-thousand missions. Even I do not know where his womanizing bravado ends and the shinobi begins. That deception is his greatest weapon, as it is for any shinobi. We cannot be careless against him."

"But sir -"

"A ninja must have patience, Tanuki. Let us wait for Tsunade. We shall have our opportunity sooner or later."

"Yes sir. Also, we've just received a message from the Grass. I believe it is regarding the matter of the Wood Style – they wish to speak with us urgently."

Danzo cursed. "We'll have to take special measures to appease them. The Grass would be even more foolish than they already are to act on their own. The village is in no state to have them get Stone or Cloud involved. I have an idea; prepare the reports on the Hyuga Clan. We'll look there."

Outside, Jiraiya stretched. "Welp, guess I'll head to the bath-house while I can. Tsunade's gonna put a real hamper on my research."

* * *

 **Thanks for waiting. School's been a bit tough lately, and isn't gonna let up any time soon. I'd really like to finish Part 1 before graduation, however.**

 **So, what do we have here? Working out the characterization of Sakura's parents, the fabled find-out-about-the-kyubi scene, anime moms existing, Sakura being terminally embarrassed, Jiraiya being awesome, and Danzo being a real ninja asshole. Maybe. We'll see.**

 **So, what's left? We've got a bit more character interaction with Hinata, then it's off to Waterfall before Itachi comes to rain on the parade. This will represent my greatest challenge with this fic, and that's writing original conflicts. I hope I get it down, because there's gonna have to be a lot more of it to make the story interesting.**


	10. Thunder

"C'mon! Let's get to the next stall already!"

"Naruto, if I've said it once… Please… slow _the hell_ down!"

Naruto's bright orange and blue tones went to food stalls to mask displays to game booths with all the reservation of a rampaging bull. Sakura panted heavily while her pink hair bobbed along after him.

"C'mon, Sasuke, let's _do_ something already!" Naruto pointed to a display with targets and cheap rubber kunai to throw.

Sasuke turned his nose up at the childish display. "I'm good." He kept up with Naruto using repeated iterations of shunshin no jutsu, muttering something about practice.

Sakura caught up again as Naruto paid and began somewhat messily applying the kunai to the white humanistic outline. "Aren't you cold, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura was wearing longer clothes under her dress, but Sasuke and Naruto were in their usual light clothes, although Naruto's jumpsuit was at least more suitable for the chill.

"Not if I apply my fire chakra," he replied, dodging one of Naruto's wider flails.

"Isn't that… kind of… dangerous?" Sakura huffed. "What if you run out of chakra?"

"I won't."

"And you keep using that… that _annoying_ technique Kakashi-sensei always uses to get out of our reach…"

"Do you have a _name_ for that 'annoying' technique?"

"Of _course_ I do! How many books and scrolls do you think –" Sakura began with uncharacteristic snippiness when outside her notice Naruto launched at Sasuke with a glomp but landed on Sakura when his initial target had flash-stepped behind her. "Ack, Naruto – can you _calm down_ already? And get off me please."

Naruto gave a 'hum' sound next to her head. "…Do I have to?"

"We've pretty much been running around the _entire_ day so I would be _grateful_ if you'd let me have a _moment's_ rest," she replied through gritted teeth.

"But you're nice and warm," Naruto cheered cheekily.

"Then _wear some warmer clothes!"_ Sakura barked, clouds of vapor forming from her mouth.

Naruto released her and skipped to another stall. "Sorry, I've just never been to one of these festivals before, y'know? I mean, not _really,"_ he said as he adeptly wove around the crowds.

Sakura waited to follow him this time. She was still tired. "He's been awfully _clingy_ with us lately, don't you think?"

"Can you blame him?" Sasuke said evenly.

"No, I guess not…" Sakura replied quietly.

Sasuke glanced at her disheveled and wind-swept appearance. Cold sweat had appeared on her brow, and he noted that, while clearly exhausted, she'd managed to keep up with him and Naruto for the entire day for the first time.

He then thought back to her snap at him a moment ago, so different from those idealized feminine facades she'd always approached him with, between the altered pitch in her voice and the weird way she'd draw her arms and legs together before flipping herself on a dime to beat on Naruto. To Sasuke, it had all been so _obviously_ not who she was. "You're better this way," Sasuke said suddenly.

"Huh? What's better?"

Sasuke ignored this. "Look, he's waiting now." He jerked his head to Naruto waving in the distance.

"So he _can_ listen to me," Sakura muttered.

"You go on. I'm done for tonight." Sasuke swiftly turned around to leave.

"Eh? B-But, Sasuke-kun…" Naturally, this still disappointed her.

"Later." They had been training or otherwise 'running around' as Sakura put it for the whole day, but that wasn't why Sasuke was tired.

He'd walked around the place for a few minutes before sitting down against a tree on the edge of the path, where he closed his eyes and meditated his fire chakra for warmth.

He'd tuned out the noise of people for several minutes until, underneath the current, as soft as the evening wind and hidden but noticeable to him, a familiar voice was calling.

"…Hanabi, stay with me please…"

A reply came. "But I see them!"

Sasuke opened his eyes to watch Hinata trail after a young, unmistakably Hyuga girl, both clad in the striking yukata and warm haori only nobility could wear with ease. A planned outing then, unlike Naruto's spur of the moment decision. Sakura had complained about not having a yukata with haori, he remembered.

Hinata followed Hanabi towards his direction. Sasuke stood up, causing Hinata to notice him despite chasing after her sister.

"Oh – Sasuke-kun!" She stopped obligingly while still keeping Hanabi within her view.

He nodded in greeting to her.

"Um… I'm surprised to see you here."

"Naruto's idea. Sakura didn't mind either."

"Oh I see, have they gone home now?" Hinata looked around anxiously.

"They're probably still around. I was gonna head home. The three of us have been doing things since morning."

Hinata's pearl eyes glanced to Hanabi quickly and then stared at him for a moment and widened in understanding. "You feel… tired?"

"Yeah. They're both loud and like places like this," Sasuke glanced around to the crowds of families and off-duty ninja.

"Yes, yes of course… Kiba-kun is like that too. I won't keep bothering you then, please excuse me." Hinata turned towards Hanabi.

Sasuke thought a moment, then held up a hand. "…You're not a bother. It's fine you want to… talk, for awhile."

Hinata looked back at him in concern. "Are you sure? I-I mean, I know it feels with crowds…"

"…Yes, I know you do," Sasuke muttered petulantly. "But you're not like Naruto and Sakura. I said it's fine so it's fine."

Eventually, Hinata nodded, and smiled.

"Hinata-nee-sama~ what's keeping you?" Hanabi bounced over, then froze as she eyed Sasuke much more brazenly than her sister would. She'll have to learn to look at people more inconspicuously, Sasuke thought.

"H-Hanabi, this is Sasuke Uchiha. We were classmates at the academy. Um, Sasuke-kun, this is my little sister, Hanabi."

" _U-Uchiha?_ " Hanabi gawked and stiffly schooled her posture and face. "I mean – It's an honor to meet you, Uchiha-san."

"Just call me Sasuke," he said quickly. "I don't usually care for formality. It's all pretense."

Hanabi looked at him curiously, like what he said was a sudden revelation. Her face broke into a grin so wide it would never be seen on her sister. "Then just call me Hanabi, okay, Sasuke-niisan?"

"Hn."

"Oh, I know that sound! Dad does that a lot. And grandpa. And Neji-nii."

"H-Hanabi, Sasuke-kun may be okay with it, but you should address your family better," Hinata said, considerably less sternly than she would have liked.

"It's fine, it's fine," Hanabi leaned forward, "they're all at home anyway 'cause they're _boring_ ," she whispered loudly to Sasuke.

Hinata's face lost a few shades of color.

"Hey, I heard the Uchiha were awesome, is that true?"

"H-Hanabi!"

"It's okay, Hinata," Sasuke replied. The girl amused him. Sasuke looked down at the child. "We were the best."

"Dad says Neji-nii is the strongest up and coming Hyuga, and that he's even better than most of the adults too. Are you stronger than him?"

Sasuke smirked at her. "I've wondered that myself. But he lost to Naruto, who's my teammate, and I'm stronger than Naruto is."

"Woooaow so cool!" Hanabi chirped. "But you know, Neji-nii's been training really hard since then! Hey the Hyuga name means 'the Sun', what does the Uchiha name mean?"

Sasuke looked around until he spotted a stall, grilling eels over coals. "Look over there. What's the owner doing?"

Hanabi squinted and resisted using her Byakugan. "I guess he's using the fan to keep the fire going?"

"That's right," Sasuke turned around and pointed his thumbs to the symbol emblazoned on his back.

"Ah~ I get it, like 'Uchiwa' right?" Hanabi said gleefully.

"He controls the fire, and so do we."

"And you have eyes too? Like we do, I mean?"

Hinata bristled and looked between them frightfully, opening her mouth to scold Hanabi again.

Sasuke knelt down so that his black eyes looked straight into her white ones. He blinked and the red of the Sharingan glinted in the dark.

Hanabi's wide eyes gazed in wonder, and she grinned again. "That looks so cool! It's actually like, different from your regular eyes! The Byakugan's lame, it just looks the same as our normal eyes."

"That makes it harder to tell when it's being used," Sasuke chided, "and you might say the Hyuga's eyes are always interesting, while mine are normal unless the Sharingan is on."

"Sharingan," Hanabi parroted, delighted. She looked back to the gaggle of Hyuga where Natsu was. "I'm gonna go with the others now, okay Hinata-nee-sama?"

Hinata gave a small sigh, perhaps in relief. "Okay Hanabi. Have fun and listen to Natsu-san even though Father's not around."

"'Kay~," Hanabi drawled at her. "Sasuke-niisan," she whipped back to him. Sasuke had forgotten how energetically young kids acted. "Let's play sometime – and by 'play' I mean 'fight'."

"The best kind of play," Sasuke agreed.

"You promise? Don't go easy on me, being the family heir is nothing special, but I'm just as strong as Hinata-nee-sama is."

"Sure kid, get stronger and come find me." Without thinking about what he was doing, Sasuke reached out and poked Hanabi's forehead with two fingers. "Until then."

"'M not a kid," Hanabi muttered, but grinned and skipped away.

Hinata watched her until she made contact with Natsu, then turned to Sasuke. "I'm sorry about that, Sasuke-kun. Thank you for… indulging her."

Sasuke just stared at his two curved fingers, frowning.

Hinata fidgeted at his silence but did not understand the meaning of what he'd done.

Sasuke scoffed. "Let's go," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Hinata had to jog in her sandals to catch up to him. "U-um, go where?"

"Around, wherever. I just like walking."

They did just that, going nowhere in particular. Neither spoke further, and Hinata grew anxious, wondering if she should try and make conversation. That was what other people liked to do.

Sasuke had seemed lost in thought, following her pace by a hair's breadth.

Hinata remembered then, that Sasuke wasn't other people. He was fine with the silence, and so was she, Hinata realized. She smiled to herself.

Sasuke meanwhile, contemplated Hanabi, so much more rambunctious than her older sister. _She's talented, but not as much as Neji_ , Sasuke thought. _Her name means 'fireworks', fitting. She's less interested in formality with her clan, but always addresses Hinata respectfully._ He thought back to her parting comment. _She only brushes off being the heir because she thinks it makes Hinata feel better about being passed over, but it's obvious she takes it and her training to be such very seriously, even if she'd rather be doing things other kids do._ _I wonder what happened to choose the succession. It's probably not something I should ask about._ He sighed imperceptibly.

After a couple of passes by the park, Hinata spoke up. "Hey Sasuke-kun, I haven't eaten in awhile," she pointed to one of the food stalls.

He looked up and over from her to the takoyaki stand. "I don't need anything." He walked with her up to the stand anyway and raised an eyebrow at the stack of boxes Hinata began procuring.

"Thank you, sir," Hinata said politely to the server and handed him some ryo.

"Sure thing little miss Hyuga!" he said jovially. "And how about for – "He looked Sasuke up and down with a pause. "A-ah, young master Uchiha!" He quickly gathered up bundles of Takoyaki. "What can I get you? Name it, free of charge."

"I've eaten, thanks," Sasuke said simply, grabbing Hinata's boxes while she put her purse away.

Hinata was, however, very confused by their interaction and came to follow Sasuke as he headed to a bench.

"Now there's something you don't see every day," the server could be heard saying behind them while he scratched his head.

Hinata joined him on the bench and accepted the boxes but did not open them yet. She stared at the ground, then turned to Sasuke. "…Is everyone in the village like that?"

"Pretty much," Sasuke said evenly. "I'm the last Uchiha. It's to be expected."

"That doesn't mean… but it's not right," Hinata protested softly. _It's like they respect him and the Uchiha name but are afraid somehow, like they're always walking on glass around him._

"Naruto's had it worse from them. This isn't so bad. Your sister's different, at least."

Hinata found she had nothing to say to that. She opened her boxes and ate quickly, something Sasuke again raised an eyebrow over.

Hinata patted her full stomach after finishing and she sat back for awhile. Sasuke began to relax a little as well, returning briefly to meditating his fire chakra to stay warm.

After several minutes of digesting Hinata sat up and looked around the park. She got an idea. "Sasuke-kun," she began. "Did you ever do the um… 'ninja eye spy' game when you were younger?"

He opened his eyes. He had. It was something his family had done as a method of preemptively training their dojutsu at an early age. It had never occurred to him that the Hyuga had done it too, but it made sense, especially thinking back to Neji in the preliminary match. "…Yeah. You saying you wanna give it a go?"

"Um… I know it's kind of childish now, but…"

"Nevermind that. It sounds interesting. Pick a target then, thirty seconds, normal eyes only."

Hinata felt a bubble of glee as she quickly scanned the people around without using her Byakugan. She zeroed in on an elderly man sitting by himself further away. "Okay, on the bench at seven o'clock."

Sasuke looked over. "Thirty seconds starts now."

The mental clock ticked away while each of their eyes darted across the man's features, no matter how unassuming or hidden by shadow. Worlds of information came through their minds, though how different each was they did not know.

"Alright, you start," Sasuke said when time was up.

Hinata cleared her throat. "His body shows signs that he was quite muscular when he was younger. He was recently widowed – poor man – because he still has a mark where his ring was. His hands have no calluses but have specific and old burns and knife cuts. He wasn't a ninja. He labored hard at being a chef instead."

Sasuke gave a 'hn' that ruffled Hinata thoroughly. "Good, but he _was_ a ninja, if an unorthodox one. He didn't fight directly but probably made poisons, medicine or otherwise did chemistry and plant work, which would have involved travel and gathering with a fit body. The rest of the work shows on his hands."

"But what are the odds? Isn't a normal chef more likely?" Hinata argued.

"Look at his ears. There are markings from wearing a forehead protector."

Hinata looked, and almost let out a curse. "Maybe he became a chef after he retired? Many ninja retire early."

"Perhaps," Sasuke said nonchalantly. "I'll pick next."

Hinata huffed. "Thirty seconds," she reminded him.

Sasuke copied her from before and identified a teenager grumpily running one of the other food stands while his father worked busily behind him. "The seller at the yakisoba stand, three o'clock."

Again they took in as many sights as they could before the thirty seconds were up.

"You first this time," Hinata told him as was fair.

He nodded. "A normal civilian, had plans to go out around the festival with friends but was made to mind the stand by his old man instead. He's irritated and is itching to leave, his eyes keep looking out in the streets."

Hinata smiled. "Not with friends, with a girl."

Sasuke continued staring at the stand.

"He was fingering something small but bulky in his pocket, like a jewelry package. It's her present. Winter's coming soon, it's the romantic season."

"…I don't believe you."

"W-What? Just because he's not doing it right _now_ -"

She was interrupted by a _bang_ as the teenager slammed the counter with his fist. " _Dammit Dad I'm going to find Kokoro-chan and you ain't stopping me!"_ The young man vaulted the counter while his father shouted after him. A few people clapped until the old man glared at them.

After awhile Sasuke looked down and rubbed his head, saying nothing.

Hinata burst into giggles that sounded like chimes. Sasuke wondered privately how many times she'd ever laughed like that.

Soon after, they returned to aimless wandering and companionable silence. Hinata had a smile on her face, but the hand that Sasuke had used to poke Hanabi's forehead began to itch and make him think back again.

"Um… I think things are winding down, and I should get back before my Father retires for the night…" Hinata offered to him.

Sasuke, who had mostly been looking down at the ground, turned his eyes to her. "…Yeah. Making him upset would be unnecessary." He paused and looked down again. "…You didn't just kill that Sound ninja because your lives were on the line."

Hinata's breath caught in her throat.

"You didn't want Hanabi to face a terrible burden. You were protecting her innocence as much as you could, so that she could keep on being a normal child. Even though she's grown up without your mother."

"…Yes," Hinata said quietly.

"And even though she now bears the weight of the Hyuga clan heir in your place. So that she can be a different person to how _you_ were. A stronger person."

"Yes."

Sasuke was silent. When he met her eyes again Hinata felt tears approaching at his look of utter defeat. "…Hinata, you're a good sibling."

And Sasuke began walking home once again. On his door he would find a note from Kakashi for their first mission in a long time, as would Naruto and Sakura.

Hinata ran back to the family compound, yukata and all, with quiet tears. _I should have stopped Hanabi… I shouldn't have let him be reminded of it all… I'm so_ sorry _Sasuke-kun, it's_ my _fault…_

* * *

Naruto yawned loudly to the chill morning sun, leaves briskly crunching on the road underfoot.

Sakura eyed his maw with equal tiredness. "Naruto, quit doing that, it's going to make me… me…" She raised her hand to her mouth and scrunched her eyes as she failed to suppress her own yawn.

"Hwah… sorry, Sakura-chan. We haven't gotten up this early for a mission in a while."

Sakura wanted to raise the point of how they'd stayed up at the festival playing around at the stalls but could not bring herself to. Because she was too tired, of course.

Sasuke walked with a trudge and a hunch in his back. His eyes looked swollen and were narrower than usual, something Sakura managed to notice through the fuzz.

"Sasuke-kun, you look tired too. Was everything okay after you left the festival?"

He did not look her way or otherwise acknowledge her. When he spoke, she had to strain her ears to hear him. "…I just didn't sleep well. It happens to everyone, sometimes."

"O-oh. I guess that's true."

Ahead of them, Kakashi was humming a classic Hidden Leaf tune.

"There's nothing more annoyin' in the morning than a _cheerful_ person," Naruto muttered.

"Now kids, don't hate me just because of my age. You see, as you get older you find yourself needing less sleep," Kakashi said as cheerfully as he could, just to irritate his students further. "Isn't that right, Shibuki-san?"

"Y-yes, I believe I have heard that and factoring in my own experience…" The boyish-faced ninja with long dark hair, a blue tunic and the headband of the Hidden Waterfall replied nervously from behind him, leaving the sentence trailing.

Naruto yawned again, which made Sakura scowl. "What rank is this mission anyway, if we're goin' outside the village?"

"Naruto, didn't you pay attention to the briefing?" Sakura sighed.

"I might have dozed off."

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well Naruto, it seems you can tell this isn't a D-rank mission. That's good, at least. So then, would you say this is a C-rank mission?"

Naruto scratched his head.

"It's a B-rank," Sasuke said shortly.

"Yes," Kakashi said. "An escort implies combat, which begets at least a C-rank. Our friend Shibuki-san here, however is a ninja."

"Combat involving ninja is at least a B-rank," Sakura said in realization.

Shibuki shivered at the discussion.

"Eh? You cold, mister?" Naruto asked.

"N-nothing I can't handle," he replied quickly. He made a Tiger Sign and with a short _whoosh_ he was cast in a thin, invisible coat of chakra. "See? That should take care of it."

"Oh! Was that the thing you showed us before we left, Kakashi-sensei? That we use to keep warm?"

"Good of you to remember, Naruto," Kakashi said. "A simple technique – not even a jutsu, more like an exercise of chakra – that ninja use for protection from the elements. It has its limitations, though, so don't rely too much on it. Keep those cloaks on."

"Sensei, what about our mission to the Wave?" Sakura began. "That was supposed to be a C-rank, but…"

"Well, have you checked your village coffers lately?"

"Um, well we haven't had any missions lately so…"

"I wasn't being critical, Sakura. But there you'll find you've received some retro pay from that mission."

Naruto's eyes lit up with ryo signs. "How much?!"

"I believe it was around one million – split between each of us, of course."

"So that's…" Naruto started counting on his fingers.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand, Naruto," Sakura said quickly, for she was also going dizzy over the amount. All of their D-rank missions combined had not been close to it.

"That amount would be… A-rank?" Sasuke said slowly.

"Yup," Kakashi said easily. "If you recall, the Wave could not afford to pay for anything above a C-rank. The punishment for mission fraud is normally quite severe, but with Gato out of the picture and the bridge completed, they've been doing quite well and were happy to reimburse us. So, congratulations you three, you've got one A-rank mission on the docket, a feat few chunin could even lay claim to, let alone genin."

Shibuki had listened with interest. "You kids had a trick mission? Wow, you must have had a hard time. I don't think I could handle something like that…" He wrung his hands and looked at the ground in thought.

"What's a trick mission?" Naruto parroted.

"What many ninja call a mission where the rank increases due to unforeseen complications or otherwise. Most clients know better than to try and commit robbery from a ninja village - let alone from one of the Five – so usually these cases aren't the fault of the client. Wave was a different matter, but everything worked out, hm?" Kakashi shrugged.

"Smaller villages like mine more often have to deal with these kinds of missions because it's harder for us to enforce mission rankings or hunt down rogues," Shibuki spoke up. "When I hand out missions I check them very carefully, but even so I tell my forces to pull out quickly if such a case happens."

"Shibuki-san, you mean _you_ administer missions in the Waterfall?" Sakura squinted at him more critically than she might ought to have with a client.

"Y-yes, I know I'm not much, but I'm the village leader, which is why I was away conducting affairs and am offering the Leaf this mission."

It was to Sakura's further consternation that he meekly accepted her attitude.

"Couldn't you have brought your own ninja for an escort?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm afraid all of my best ninja are away from the village on a more critical matter. Normally I would have been fine on my own, but since your village's invasion many countries have been on edge from what the Sand or Sound will do next, as well as the status of current alliances. I'm quite able to pay your rates, of course."

"Ah…" Sakura realized. "We're allies with the Waterfall, but the Sand and Sound were also our allies… what are their current relationships with the Leaf?"

"Active conflict with the Sound," Kakashi said, "though we haven't seen hide or hair from them since. Seems Lord Hokage managed to injure Orochimaru quite severely. As for Sand, that is still up in the air. Our intel says that the Sound had proposed the assault, but that they also killed the Kazekage. They're far worse off than we are right now, so at the very least we don't expect any more trouble from them."

"That's Gaara's dad…" Naruto muttered. "Damn… what's gonna happen to him?"

"I'm afraid the minor villages are often locked in their own conflicts," Shibuki said solemnly. "I only inherited the position as village head because of my father, the previous leader, who died defending us from a skirmish. He's a hero, and I love my village, so I accepted the position, but there are still better ninja than me who could have…" He trailed off again.

"Hey yo, Shibuki-san, none of that!" Naruto pounded his chest. "I hear ya, your dad sounded like he was great. I got a friend who you kind of remind me of, an' she's really tryin' hard to change herself and get stronger for her family and her friends! You gotta keep it up!"

Sakura had been surprised that Naruto had suddenly addressed their jumpy client with a proper honorific, then considered who Naruto might be talking about, but was still too tired to dwell further on it.

Sasuke just thumbed his chin and smiled underneath his hand where no one could see.

Shibuki just rubbed his head. "I-I see. I appreciate that, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's tiredness was forgotten as he bounded ahead of the on the path. "Heh, don't mention it. You seem like a swell guy, so once I'm Hokage, you can count on me for anything you need!"

Shibuki blinked, then stifled laughter out of sight.

"Eh? Oi, what's so funny?" Naruto fumed.

"Naruto, stay in formation," Kakashi called lazily.

* * *

Hinata went over her thoughts again before quietly knocking on the sliding door to her father's office.

"Come in," he spoke from within.

Hinata softly stepped in and sat down on the tatami before Hiashi's desk, where he was drafting a letter. Hiashi did not need to look up to recognize his elder daughter's footsteps. "Before I ask what has brought you here, Hinata, I want to ask how you think Neji has been doing?"

Hinata was mildly startled. "Oh, um – we ran into each other this morning, he greeted me, and his eyes looked well. I've also seen him meditating in the gardens. I know he's been hurting for a long time, so if he's doing better, I'm happy for him."

Hiashi looked up at her carefully. "And you do not hold the fact that he nearly killed you against him?"

"I… I guess that puts me on edge, but I don't want things to be like that between us. We were in earnest combat, and I was the one who kept pushing him to attack. I did that because I wanted us to fight honestly, not as enemies. H-He's family!" she all but squeaked out the last part.

Hiashi was quiet for a moment. "It relieves me to hear that, Hinata. The Hyuga have sacrificed many things in its days. Neji's father – my brother – was one of them. I have always deeply regretted his circumstances. I will have to tell you the details of that matter, but that is not why you've come to my office, is it?"

Hinata had to regain her line of thought following this distraction. She cleared her throat. "Father, well… I've been learning a little bit of ninjutsu from… Sasuke Uchiha."

If he'd been caught of guard by this, even Hinata could not pick up on it. "You two were classmates at the academy, yes?"

"Y-yes, although we didn't really talk back then…"

"I see, and what techniques has he taught you?"

"F… Fire Style jutsu, sir…" Hinata said meekly.

"Raise your head."

Hinata did so.

Hiashi threaded his fingers and leaned forward. "Did he teach you the Goukakyu?"

"H-how did you know?"

After a pause, he replied. "It is not a matter of knowing. That technique was the Uchiha right of passage. Their children were only allowed to wear the family crest once they could successfully perform this technique."

Hinata reeled from the implications.

"Had he taught you any other fire technique – of which the Uchiha have many – I would not be terribly interested. Tell me, there is a reason you have approached me on this, yes?"

Hinata gulped. "In the village, I started to notice that people… always treat him very carefully. They offer him anything he wants, but they hold him at arms length. It's like… like he's a dangerous animal, or something," Hinata finished.

"And you thought I would know more about this?"

Hinata could think of many different reasons to come to her father about the Uchiha, but forced herself to give the concise answer. "Yes."

Hiashi folded his arms. "Hinata, how long did it take you to perform the fire jutsu he taught you?"

"Um… a few days of practice, I suppose." She said with inquisition.

"Sasuke's brother, Itachi, successfully performed Goukakyu when he was four years old, in a single try."

Hinata's breath hitched.

"When he was in the academy, it was discovered that he had been skipping class by using Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to attend in his place while he went off to train much greater techniques. He was swiftly fast-tracked to graduation, his teacher saying the academy truly had nothing to offer him."

"B-But, Itachi-san, he –"

"Yes, yes. Sasuke was only eight years old when Itachi murdered the entire family in a single night. Sasuke was found unconscious from the effects of genjutsu and did not awaken for several days."

Hinata nibbled her lip in agitation.

Hiashi leaned forward. "Hinata, Itachi was hailed as a genjutsu genius, which is augmented by the power of the Sharingan. The Hyuga do not focus on genjutsu because it is nearly impossible for it to deceive our Byakugan, but some of us think that if anyone could, it would be Itachi. Sasuke's objective is to kill his brother and avenge his family, is it not?"

"Y-yes."

"Everyone knows that Sasuke is gifted, but most are doubtful that he is capable of overcoming his brother, who has both vast experience and unparalleled talent. Frankly, it is suicide. Of course, it is also thought that only the Sharingan could overcome another Sharingan in direct confrontation, so if Sasuke cannot do it, then who could? Itachi is still young, he well have a long reign as a rogue."

"F-Father, but why do the villagers treat the Uchiha like this? They helped found the village!" Hinata burst out.

"Calm yourself Hinata," Hiashi breathed. "Listen closely. We advance our Byakugan through careful training, meditation and concentration. However, the Sharingan is different. It's power does not come on its own, nor will training increase it, of course experience using it is still relevant. They are seen as a stoic or even callous people, like we are, but this is a façade."

"A… façade?"

"Yes. In truth, the Uchiha are highly motivated towards their loved ones. The Sharingan is a mirror that reflects this. It is not training that brings out the Sharingan, but trauma."

"S-Sasuke does have his Sharingan. I've seen it…"

"It may very well have been granted to him on that terrible night. Tell me, how many tomoe markings did his eyes have?"

Hinata thought back to their spar, where their eyes had flashed dangerously at each other. "…Two, in each one."

Hiashi nodded. "The Sharingan develops in stages, from one tomoe to three. With each, it gains more abilities than before, but that path is not easy for an Uchiha to bear, furthermore…"

Hinata leaned forward. "Y-Yes?"

Hiashi looked at her sternly. "What I am about to tell you, you must never reveal to anyone, do you understand? That is the least we can do to respect what is left of our fellow Noble Clan."

Hinata's hands shook nervously. "Of course, Father."

"The Uchiha are as ancient as we are. There have long been rumors that the Sharingan goes beyond those three tomoe. I admit, I did not put much stock in them myself. But before you were born, during the Third Great War, I saw it for myself."

"What… What happened?" Hinata could do little more than listen in anxious terror.

"Sasuke and Itachi's father, Fugaku. He had not yet become head of the clan. We had been sieged on the northeast front by the Stone for days. A boulder from a giant Earth Style jutsu suddenly fell upon Fukagu's best friend since they were boys. The Sharingan could not have seen it coming, for it cannot see the future, as many think it does. I had seen, with my Byakugan, but I was too far away to warn them or stop it." Hiashi thumbed his eyes, a sight of regret Hinata had never seen on him. "And then, Fugaku was in unbearable anguish. He could not stomach the sudden and tragic loss. Then I saw something I doubt anyone has. Intense spiritual energy bloomed in his brain. It traveled along his optic nerves, burning as it went. I could hear him screaming." Hiashi sighed deeply. He reached for a pot and poured Hinata some tea.

She did not touch it.

"I held my position, for somehow I could not bring myself to approach. But I remember great storms of fire, searing through the enemy forces with a laser-like precision. Some of the soldiers we found did not die, but appeared to have been bombarded with mentally devastating ocular genjutsu. Lastly, a towering, ethereal skeleton, concealing Fugaku in a cage. It's spiritual energy was so strong the chakra was both visible and rendered solid, and it had his distinct color, a deep burgundy." This time, Hiashi poured himself some tea, and the pot was nearly empty. He took a long sip.

Hinata had not noticed, but a line of tears had appeared on her face.

"That is the legacy of the Uchiha. They love fiercely until they writhe in the agony of loss. That emotion builds a chakra no one else can, manifest as a legendary dojutsu, which prior to then had not been seen since the Era of Warring Clans. Fugaku had always been a serious and composed shinobi, but quick enough to smile among friends. I did not see him smile after that, except on occasions with his family. I don't think anyone but me had seen firsthand, but after examining the battlefield whispers floated about. 'Fugaku of the Wicked Eye', they called him. And this was in no way the beginning, for the Uchiha had been feared for generations, even if the people did not know why. The Second Hokage knew, however."

"N…Nidaime-sama…?" Hinata stammered.

"Yes. He had seen the Uchiha fight for longer than anyone, from long before the formation of villages. He came to respect many of the Uchiha, but it was clear that he intended to keep their emotional power under check. He made many policies that were unfavorable to them, appointed them in charge of the police force while the ANBU remained under his control. He even approved the emotional control that we teach shinobi in your academy textbooks. It was not simply for Konoha; he wanted the Uchiha tamed."

"I… but the Hokage is supposed to… to…" Hinata felt dizzy.

"Hinata, drink some of your tea," Hiashi ordered.

Hinata did, and her breathing slowed.

"Yes, Lord Second was still our Hokage. Above all, he wanted the Uchiha to be useful to the village. On his final mission during the end of the First Great War, he sacrificed himself to hold off Cloud's strongest shinobi while the forces under his command escaped. In his squad was the renowned Kagami Uchiha, a widely respected and fiercely loyal shinobi. In the same squad was Hiruzen Sarutobi, whom was given a battlefield promotion to the Third Hokage by the Second himself. Despite what had happened to him and the enemies he slaughtered, Fugaku remained a stable and composed shinobi who desired peace after the war as much as the rest of us did." Hiashi finished off his tea. "Itachi, too, was an exemplary shinobi. Respectful, thorough, trusted by his comrades. Remember that, Hinata. I do not know why he did what he did, but I doubt he could have if he did not also experience that madness which could advance the Sharingan to a ludicrous degree. Perhaps, in his time here, he came to view the shinobi world itself as futile."

Hinata bit back a lump in her throat. "But Sasuke-kun's not like that! I know, he's very sad, he doesn't really smile, and he's always trying to get stronger but… He's still a good person!"

Hiashi held up a hand to her outburst. "I agree, Hinata. The fact that he taught you a technique so important to his family's legacy, I believe, tells me that much. Do not waste his gift. But I _must_ tell you," Hiashi began strongly, almost pleadingly. "Sasuke has lost _everything_. I am certain he refuses to get close to anyone, for fear of it ever happening again, and I doubt he knows, but he is wise to do this, for even I fear what he may become if it does."

* * *

 **That one came out a little long, but I got pretty into that last scene. Again, sorry for the wait. I'm working again, so things get stressful. I need to bring myself to write more often, because it really is nice to do.**

 **We'll probably move away from Hinata for awhile, since I'm planning to do Waterfall (and ignoring a lot of the OVA in the process) and then Itachi, then Tsunade. As for Danzo, what he's up to will become clearer soon, and let me say again that people often misinterpret his character, so see if you can expect it.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Iggy**


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